Experiences of women with depression on rehabilitation counselling in Mkushi district of Zambia.

The prevalence of Depression has been on the increase among Zambians (Munakampe, 2020) hence the need for rehabilitation counselling. What is not known is how rehabilitation counselling helped women who had depression in Mkushi District. It is from this perspective that this study
sought to explore experiences of women who had depression in Mkushi district in terms of how rehabilitation counselling helped them. The Cognitive Behavioural Theory guided this study. Eight women with depression were selected using criterion sampling with depression as the criterion of
importance, to take part in an interpretive phenomenological study aimed at exploring the experiences of women with depression on rehabilitation counselling in Mkushi District of Zambia. They were interviewed and their responses thematically analyzed. Findings showed that causes of depression among women in Mkushi were marital problems, chronic illness, lack of income, illnesses such as HIV/AIDS, abuse, infertility, and the inability to care for family; that most women in Mkushi have never experienced rehabilitation counselling for their depression; that a lack of knowledge about causes, symptoms and treatment was a hindrance to accessing depression rehabilitation counselling among women in Mkushi District, and that
information about depression (causes, symptoms, treatment) so that people have an idea exactly what to do and where to go for help, was needed. In addition, there was need for rehabilitation counselling to be introduced at primary care level.