Art Therapy As A Treatment For Depression: Case of Control Group at Langata Women’s Prison Nairobi – Kenya
- August 30, 2019
- Posted by: RSIS
- Category: Social Science
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue VIII, August 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186
Gituro Wainaina, Nyawira Kuria
University of Nairobi, Kenya
Abstract:- Objective was to assess effectiveness of art therapy as treatment for depression among incarcerated women at Langata Women Prison using Bandura’s social learning theory and cognitive behavioral theory. Unit of analysis was imprisoned women and Becks Depression Inventory (BDI-II) 21-item self-report scale was given to a sample of 217 prisoners to identify presence and severity levels of depression. Research was done with remands because prisoners had on-going programs. BDI-II (pre-test) questionnaires were distributed to determine levels of depression of 113 remands based on their levels of depression and 55 responded. Control did not get any art therapy treatment during the six sessions that treatment group underwent. After six weeks, control group was subjected again to BDI-II test and results indicated that most of incarcerated women had severe depression. From analysis, there was no significant reduction of depression among control group. Based on the results, at time of arrest, mental assessment should be done and those that require further assessment need to be referred to a psychiatrist and a psychologist; special attention should be given to new mothers; and for those who end up in prison.The results should be generalized with caution to other prisons in Kenya.
I. INTRODUCTION
Prison populations continue to soar in much of the world and well over 11 million people are held in penal institutions throughout the world (Walmsley, 2018).Even though men, for a long time, have constituted a larger proportion of the prison population worldwide, the number of women in prisons has continued to rise. Since the year 2000, for instance, the male prison population has increased by 18 percent whereas that of women has increased by 50 percent (Walmsley, 2016). This increase in female prisoners has been recorded in the United States of America, China, Russia, Thailand, Brazil, and Vietnam. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the number of women prisoners ranges from one to four percent of the total prison population, (Walmsley, 2016) and since 2000, there has been a notable 22 percent increase of women prisoners in Sub-Saharan African prisons. The Ugandan Bureau of Statistics report (2017) indicates that there was an increase in women in prison from 2,196 in 2016 to 2,579 in 2017. The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics’ Economic Survey Report (2018) indicates that in 2012 there were 5,809 women prisoners. This figure almost doubled to10, 644 in 2016, but reduced to 8,004 in 2017.
