Original Research Article
Year: 2023 | Month: May | Volume: 13 | Issue: 5 | Pages: 228-238
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijhsr.20230527
A Survey to Assess the Mental Health Problems and Coping Strategies Amongst the Jail Inmates in a Selected Jail in Delhi
Geophy George1, Prof. (Dr.) Bimla Kapoor2, Mitali Biswas3
1Nursing Officer, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi
2Former Professor and Director School of Health Sciences (IGNOU)
3Assistant Professor, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur College of Nursing, Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi, India
Corresponding Author: Geophy George
ABSTRACT
Context: Mental Health Problems among jail inmates are high. Most of the research studies on jail inmates are conducted by western countries whereas research studies in Indian jails are scarce.
Aim: Assess the Mental Health Problems and its relationship with various sociodemographic factors and to find Coping Strategies used by jail inmates.
Materials and methods: 192 female jail inmates of age 20-60 years were selected by purposive sampling and interviewed using Structured Interview Schedule Related to Demographic Data, Standardized DASS-21 Tool For Assessment Of Mental Health Problems, Standardized SCBS tool for assessment Of Coping Strategies (adaptive, maladaptive). SPSS was used for statistical analysis.
Results: The major findings of the study showed that 8.3%(16) had extremely severe depression, 17.7%(34) had extremely severe anxiety and 3.6%(7) had extremely severe stress. The Chi square value showed significant association between the selected demographic variables - age, marital status, family type, number of family members, literacy, previous occupation, prior income, number of days in jail, type of crime, previous substance and Mental Health Problems at 0.05 level of significance and no significant association between the number of times convicted and jail inmate status.
The findings related to coping strategies revealed that 76%(146) jail inmates used acceptance, as their adaptive coping strategy whereas 73.44 % (141) jail inmates employed self-distraction as their maladaptive coping strategy.
Conclusions: The results of this study showed that jail inmates were experiencing Mental Health Problems and have been using adaptive and maladaptive Coping Strategies. Starting of reform activities is the need of the hour.
Key words: [Mental Health Problems, Coping Strategies, jail inmates]