Re-post tests analysis of using art therapy as treatment for depression: case of Lang’ata Women’s Prison Nairobi – Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to establish the effectiveness of art therapy as a treatment for depression at Langata Women Prison (LWP) in Nairobi. The paper was anchored on Bandura’s social learning theory and cognitive behavioral theory and the paper’s unit of analysis constituted imprisoned women at LWP. The Becks Depression Inventory (BDI-II) assessment 21-item self-report scale, both in English and Swahili was given to a sample size of 217 women prisoners’ in-order to identify the presence and severity levels of depression. Out of the 217 respondents, 104 were those in prison and 113 in remand. However, the research was only done with those in remand (ordinary and capital offenders) as those in the prison had on-going programs that would be disrupted if they were to be engaged in the research. The BDI-II (pre-test) questionnaires were distributed to determine the levels of depression. A sample of 113 from the remands was selected based on their levels of depression and 55 responded. The treatment group met for six sessions once a week for two hours. After six weeks group was subjected again to BDI-II (post-test). Results indicated that most of the incarcerated women suffered from severe depression; there were more remands who were found to have depression; there were more cases of severe depression cases in both remand and prison and less inmates in prison with mild depression. However, there was a marked difference of moderate levels of depression between remands and prisoners, with those in remand having a higher level of moderate depression. From the analysis, there was a significant reduction of depression after administering art therapy (post-test) versus before art therapy (pre-test) treatment. The findings support the findings of various studies that have been done in other countries. Based on the results from this paper, at the time of arrest, mental assessment should be done and those that require further assessment need to be referred to a psychiatrist as well as support from a psychologist; special attention should be given to mothers; and for those who end up in prison, periodic screening should be undertaken together with counselling and alternative therapy. In addition, the legal system should escalate court matters to avoid prolonged stay in remand and enhance public awareness on mental health. This research focussed on incarcerated women at LWP and therefore the results should be generalized with caution to other prisons in Kenya. Another limitation was that some respondents tended to minimize and at the same time exaggerate symptoms and the self-administered data collection questionnaires depended on self-report, without medical records or corroborative history. For further research a similar intervention could be replicated in other women and men prisons, as well as compare depression amongst women and men prisoners.