Celebrating mental health awareness and wellbeing
This World Mental Health Day, we’re coming together for a special Time to Talk Coffee Club with our Firesprite Mental Health First Aiders and Mental Health Champions!
Our Firesprite Mental Health Champions and First Aiders can help those why may be struggling with poor mental health, as well as raise awareness, share resources and challenge any stigma around the topic.
Our Time to Talk Coffee Clubs are a means of talking about how to positively improve mental health and reduce stigma, creating a supportive community where we can feel empowered to talk openly about it.
We keenly appreciate the role that games and the virtual worlds and interactive experiences we cherish can help positively impact our mental health. Whether it’s the comforting nostalgia of childhood classics and first consoles memories, or the immersive technology and ability to connect across the globe which modern favourites can provide. Games of all genres hold a special place for us all as developers and players alike, they inspire us and have the power create unforgettable moments of togetherness, delight, thrill and tranquillity that we value forever.
In keeping with the theme of this significant day, Firesprite Mental Health Champion, Josh, and Mental Health First Aider, Chloe, shared with us some special insights into the ways in which gaming can positively contribute to our mental wellbeing:
“I think online games tap into a special kind of social dynamic that takes them beyond being simple distractions. With an online community backing a game I enjoy, at any hour of the day, I know there are people available to play with. In the same way I can listen to ambient, café background noise to give me a sense of presence and connectedness as I go about working from home, I can follow news about a game, chat with others, work together to solve its challenges, and generally feel like there’s a social lifeline in my leisure time, which is beneficial when outdoor plans fall through or I feel physically unable to do much more than sit at a screen. Whether it’s sharing a deeply personal moment, or rejoicing in a victory together, having an ever-present, opt-in bubble to a fantasy world where the stakes aren’t that high, but I’m still interacting with real people - that’s a really valuable extension of communication.”
Josh Hills, Online Programmer – Mental Health Champion
“For me, being able to throw myself into these different worlds is somewhat therapeutic, I value it as a nice break away from some of the natural stresses of everyday life. Personally, I love to be organised and seeing active progression, and the introduction of next-gen gaming and VR has also had a unexpected positive impact to my mental health, specifically being able get those endorphins dancing!”
Chloe Sinclair, People Engagement Manager – Mental Health First Aider
At Firesprite, we know and understand that mental health is an important topic of conversation, not just today, but every day of the year. As well as our special Time to Talk session, we also took the time to re-share with our sprites all of our resources and means of ongoing mental health support; our employee assistance, calendar of quarterly Time to Talk Coffee Clubs, our monthly Thank a Sprite initiative, Safe in our World partner resources and much more.
A huge thank you to our Mental Health Champions and First Aiders; Faried, Josh, Sophie, Will, Nat, Chloe, Jim, Fran and Matt for their support and this fantastic opportunity for us to get together to talk all things mental health - and to Chloe and Josh for sharing their insights with us all!
If you’re looking for mental health support and resources, click here for Safe in Our World’s crisis hub.
