Assessment of levels of depression, anxiety, stress and coping strategies among inmates in a selected prison/ correctional home of West Bengal

Background: Stress, anxiety and depression are common among inmates. They carry a much greater burden of illness than other members of the society. Therefore, present study was conducted with the aim of studying the level of depression, anxiety, stress and coping strategies among inmates in a selected prison. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on 200 inmates from district jail, Hooghly in West Bengal, India over the period of 7 months. Data was collected by interview method using DASS-21 scale and coping strategies scale by A. K. Srivastava. Administrative permission, ethics committee clearance and informed consent was taken before data collection. Data were analyzed by SPSS 20 version, descriptive and inferential statistics was used for analysis. Results: The study results revealed that 87.5% had mild to moderate levels of depression, 100% inmates had moderate to extremely severe levels of anxiety and 39% had moderate to extremely severe levels of stress. No one used high approach coping 76% inmates used low approach coping and 62% used moderate avoidance coping. Conclusions: Hence the study outcome provided essential information to those who help the inmates, especially the counselors in formulating and planning intervention programs to resolve the issues of underserved population.