Mental illness is a leading cause of death and disability globally, with an increasing burden over the years. The World Health Organization highlights the need for accessible preventive strategies due to the current limitations of scalable treatment modalities. In view of the growth of the mental health burden in low and middle income countries, low cost and task-shared interventions are increasingly needed.
Gamified social skills training interventions are a growing modality in the mental health prevention field. Social skills, defined by the American Psychology Association as a set of learned abilities that enable an individual to interact competently and appropriately in a given social context, have been associated with a reduction in mental health suffering and disorders. Several initiatives using games originally developed for fun or games with an interventional goal (e.g. serious games), have reported positive outcomes in psychological wellbeing, depressive or anxiety disorders, disruptive behaviors, schizophrenia, ADHD, autism, or to improve resilience. The rationale behind such intervention is that immersive, ludic and challenging gamified environments would improve treatment engagement, foster learning of new behavioral repertoires, emotional awareness and social skills.
However, there are very few papers published using gamified interventions designed to promote mental health. Most studies published use games and test their impact, but have not implemented a gamified strategy to promote mental health. The goal of this special issue is to disseminate knowledge on the gamification-based methodologies for mental health promotion and social skills training. The following topics will be considered:
1) Identification of different gamification strategies and their efficacy to promote mental health through systematic literature reviews, including:
(i) pen and paper Role-playing Games as an intervention for social skills training;
(ii) electronic games as a tool for mental health promotion;
(iii) reasons for traditional mental health promotion strategies not achieving the expected outcomes;
(iv) subjects’ experience, satisfaction, adherence and outcomes related to gamification-based strategies.
2) Integration of new gamified interventions to improve mental health and social skills training into existing activities or initiatives within the community, healthcare or academic networks, including:
(i) use of serious games as a mental health clinical tool;
(ii) use of Role-Playing Games as a socialization strategy in different community settings;
(iii) use of Role-Playing Games as a social skills training tool for high
performance teams.
3) Development and implementation of new gamified interventions to promote mental health and social skills training:
(i) feasibility evaluation of innovative strategies using gamification-based interventions;
(ii) implementation evaluation of gamified interventions;
(iii) development processes of Role-Playing Game intervention methodology;
(iv) efficacy evaluation of the use of gamified interventions.
Mental illness is a leading cause of death and disability globally, with an increasing burden over the years. The World Health Organization highlights the need for accessible preventive strategies due to the current limitations of scalable treatment modalities. In view of the growth of the mental health burden in low and middle income countries, low cost and task-shared interventions are increasingly needed.
Gamified social skills training interventions are a growing modality in the mental health prevention field. Social skills, defined by the American Psychology Association as a set of learned abilities that enable an individual to interact competently and appropriately in a given social context, have been associated with a reduction in mental health suffering and disorders. Several initiatives using games originally developed for fun or games with an interventional goal (e.g. serious games), have reported positive outcomes in psychological wellbeing, depressive or anxiety disorders, disruptive behaviors, schizophrenia, ADHD, autism, or to improve resilience. The rationale behind such intervention is that immersive, ludic and challenging gamified environments would improve treatment engagement, foster learning of new behavioral repertoires, emotional awareness and social skills.
However, there are very few papers published using gamified interventions designed to promote mental health. Most studies published use games and test their impact, but have not implemented a gamified strategy to promote mental health. The goal of this special issue is to disseminate knowledge on the gamification-based methodologies for mental health promotion and social skills training. The following topics will be considered:
1) Identification of different gamification strategies and their efficacy to promote mental health through systematic literature reviews, including:
(i) pen and paper Role-playing Games as an intervention for social skills training;
(ii) electronic games as a tool for mental health promotion;
(iii) reasons for traditional mental health promotion strategies not achieving the expected outcomes;
(iv) subjects’ experience, satisfaction, adherence and outcomes related to gamification-based strategies.
2) Integration of new gamified interventions to improve mental health and social skills training into existing activities or initiatives within the community, healthcare or academic networks, including:
(i) use of serious games as a mental health clinical tool;
(ii) use of Role-Playing Games as a socialization strategy in different community settings;
(iii) use of Role-Playing Games as a social skills training tool for high
performance teams.
3) Development and implementation of new gamified interventions to promote mental health and social skills training:
(i) feasibility evaluation of innovative strategies using gamification-based interventions;
(ii) implementation evaluation of gamified interventions;
(iii) development processes of Role-Playing Game intervention methodology;
(iv) efficacy evaluation of the use of gamified interventions.