Our Experience with Mental Health First Aid Training in the Games Industry
According to UKIE’s 2022 Games Industry Census, 38% of games industry professionals reported that they suffered from anxiety, depression, or both, a figure that increased during the pandemic and illustrates the mental health challenges prevalent across the industry.
This alarming statistic presents the question of what game development studios can do to support employee mental health more effectively. In pursuit of answering this question, BetaJester’s Games Producer, Matthew Stevens, and Creative Producer/Studio Administrator, Becky Saunders, embarked on a mental health first aid training course, delivered by Safe in Our World.
Recently, BetaJester became a Safe in Our World Level Up Partner, a recognition of our work towards making BetaJester a healthy place to work. You can read more about what this partnership means for our staff, and why it’s beneficial for the whole industry, here.
In this article, we explore what Matt and Becky both took away from their mental health first aid training, alognside how we have incorporated their learnings into BetaJester’s day-to-day operations.
What do mental health training courses cover?
Before diving into our experience with mental health first aid training, it’s important to note that no two training courses are identical and that we can only talk about Safe in Our World’s sessions.
With that said, Matt and Becky took part in four three-hour workshops which covered a variety of mental health challenges. At the start of the first session, attendees took part in a pledge that outlined the goal of mental health practitioners - to save lives. This philosophy was reiterated throughout the course, with particular emphasis on the fact that workplace mental health practitioners should not be focused on diagnosing people, but on helping them.
Each of the workshops included a detailed exploration of where different mental health challenges come from, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, imposter syndrome, and more, alongside the best way to support people through these difficulties. The method for providing this support was taught through the RESPOND action plan, a step-by-step framework that mental health practitioners can use to assist others.
Within each workshop, attendees took part in case studies where they were presented with a scenario and applied the RESPOND framework to the situation, granting tangible examples of how the action plan could be used to make a difference.
The RESPOND Action Plan
The RESPOND action plan provides a clear methodology for mental health practitioners to provide valuable support when it’s needed.
Step 1: Recognise
Identifying the signs of a team member being in distress or crisis.
Step 2: Engage
Starting the conversation and opening the door for discussion of whatever the individual is struggling with.
Step 3: Support
Listening and assisting without judgement, in the right location, and at the right time..
Step 4: Provide
Delivering bespoke guidance without giving advice, including giving information and signposting clinical assistance.
Step 5: Offer
Presenting the opportunity to help plan what actions the individual can take, such as who they can reach out to for further support.
Step 6: Next Steps
Prompting discussions around the development of the individual’s support network and what their recovery plan looks like.
Step 7: De-stress
Decompression for the mental health practitioner, including the use of mental fitness techniques to reduce stress.
Five lessons we learnt
Safe in Our World’s mental health training was invaluable for further shaping our approach to mental health as an organisation. Some of the key lessons we drew from the training included:
1. Learning how to use the RESPOND action plan effectively
The RESPOND action plan is a clear and tangible method of supporting employees in a considered and sustainable way. By applying the framework to several example scenarios, RESPOND’s methodology becomes clearer, easier to implement, and enables more effective mental health support.
2. Identifying the telltale signs of different mental health challenges
Mental health first aid training provides invaluable insight into the causes, signs, and manifestations of several mental health concerns, both common and uncommon. This preparation allows for proactive and preemptive action that can be the difference between successfully supporting an employee and failing to help them when needed.
3. Understanding what to do when individuals don’t want support
There are times when people don’t want help. For mental health practitioners who are consciously searching for opportunities to provide support, this can present a difficult scenario. Mental health first aid training provides clear guidance on how to navigate these situations and when to step back.
4. Psychological safety methods and how to set boundaries
Providing mental health support can be emotionally taxing and as much as mental health practitioners are helping their team, it’s essential for them to look after themselves, too. These training sessions helped establish clear guidelines on how to maintain boundaries and manage the mental health of everyone involved, including the practitioner.
5. Discovering the facts behind the issue
Understanding how to tackle a problem requires background knowledge about the overarching issue. Mental health first aid training delivered valuable insight into the statistics and research behind mental health in the workplace, including the extent of the mental health crisis and how much support is needed.
Together, these lessons have helped inform BetaJester’s existing employee well-being offering, challenging us to do more and be better wherever we can.
How we apply these lessons to BetaJester
At BetaJester, we consistently strive to create a supportive and inclusive working environment where everyone feels valued and can excel. This element of our company culture manifests in the form of fortnightly welfare checks and the use of Matt’s traffic light well-being framework for stand-ups.
Every two weeks, our production team conducts checks with each member of staff to not only understand how their work is going but also to understand if they are struggling with any issues outside of work. By presenting regular opportunities for non-work issues to be highlighted and identified, our production team is able to adapt, manage, and support our team where it’s needed most.
Similarly, during end-of-day stand-ups, we employ a traffic light system where team members assign themselves a colour, from green to black, based on their mood and how it has impacted their work. This serves as a single-word method of communicating any mental health challenges, without the need for divulging details that individuals may be uncomfortable sharing. Furthermore, this system allows team leaders and production staff to conduct follow-ups where appropriate and offer support when it’s needed most.
Both of these well-being approaches have been updated and improved by the lessons learnt through mental health first aid training. In particular, the questions asked and the content of our fortnightly welfare checks have been updated to reflect learnings from the mental health training.
These systems and lessons can be implemented easily both across the games industry and beyond, all it takes is a small extra step. We encourage all game development studios, regardless of size, to consider trying what we have tried and engage in training to improve their team’s health, happiness, and productivity.
If you’re interested in securing the same mental health training, visit the Safe in our World website to learn more.
