Depression is the oldest and most common psychiatric illness. A study to assess the effectiveness of the Planned Teaching Programme related to depression in selected mental health hospitals of Gujarat state. Aims: To assess the level of knowledge regarding depression and its homecare management among primary caregivers of patients admitted with depression before and after administration of planned teaching programme, To assess the effectiveness of Planned teaching programme regarding depression and its homecare management, To find out association of pre-test knowledge score regarding depression and its homecare management with selected demographic variables. Method: Pre-experimental research approach was used with one group pre-test post-test design, samples consisted of 40 and non probability purposive sampling technique for selecting 40 samples. A structured knowledge questionnaire was prepared to assess the knowledge of the samples. Result: The mean pretest knowledge score of samples about primary caregivers of patients admitted with depression was 10.2 where as post-test knowledge score was 22.45. The mean post test knowledge score is significantly higher than the mean pre test knowledge score with the mean difference of 12.28 and the calculated ‘t’ value (t = 22.22) was greater than tablulated ‘t’ value (t =2.02) which was statistically proved at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study reveal that there is no significant association with pre-test knowledge scores and selected demographic variables of the samples except religion of primary caregivers regarding homecare management of depression. Conclusion: The result of the study reveals that the primary caregivers of patients had poor knowledge before administration of Planned Teaching Programme. After administration of planned teaching programme, the knowledge had been improved. Hence, it can be seen that the Planned Teaching Programme was effective in enhancing knowledge of primary caregivers of depressive patients.

Keywords: Home care management; Depressive patients; Primary caregivers; Planned Teaching Programm.