Industry
Healthcare
Patient-centered Care: Health and Wellness Redefined
Highlights
- Mental health problems affect around one in four people in any given year.
- The gaming industry has witnessed unprecedented growth globally.
- Personalized games tailored to specific mental health conditions can have a profound impact on treatment outcomes.
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Rising stress levels
Mental health is a growing concern for people worldwide.
In a rapidly changing world, the current state of mental health among individuals is a growing concern. From densely populated cities to remote rural areas, people from all walks of life are facing unprecedented challenges. The global pandemic, economic instability, social isolation, and other stressors have taken a toll on mental well-being, making it crucial to address and prioritize mental health support on a global scale.
Mental health conditions include common conditions, such as depression, panic, and anxiety (including phobias), social isolation, and rarer conditions. The latter could include schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Even though there are known, effective treatments for mental disorders, they are expensive, have limited insurance coverage, are managed by one-size-fits-all treatments, lack social support, and must tackle the associated stigma, thereby limiting access to mental well-being.
The gaming industry has witnessed unprecedented growth globally. It provides a way of non-intrusive access. A recent study by the National Library of Medicine assessed the effect of serious games on attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and alcohol abuse; it suggests that games are effective in reducing some aspects of mental health conditions. A game can engage its audiences for hours and days. However, creating games for effective mental health therapy requires game personalization capabilities, which can allow users, such as medical professionals and game developers, to design games for the unique needs of a patient.
Customizable avatars, narrative choices, adaptive difficulty levels, and interactive feedback systems can enhance therapeutic experience. Other technology interventions include robust, easy-to-use editors, data-driven adaptive algorithms, sensor integration with wearables, emotion recognition systems, dynamic storytelling, social interaction features, AI chatbots, and VR experience.
Games are sometimes blamed for negatively impacting mental health, but they can also be a powerful tool for self-expression, escapism, and emotional well-being.
Personalizing games for mental well-being
With personalized game designs, the stakeholders—such as therapists—can attain specific outcomes.
A successful gaming solution for mental health should enable a seamless blend of immersive gameplay, storytelling, cutting-edge graphics, and mental health therapy elements. The solution should also enable service providers such as insurance companies, healthcare professionals, government, financial institutions, or even technology companies to integrate and participate in mental health therapy. This can be done through standard and custom services such as account management, billing, and integration with other related services, so that this concept could be leveraged as a model for therapy.
Mental health therapies incorporated in gaming
This encompasses a range of therapy-based elements that address specific mental health challenges and promote positive outcomes. These range from simple one-time activities to more long-term activities involving the user to stay committed on the path to recovery and change. Examples include:
- Emotion-based interventions, which help users manage their emotions and identify their changing cognitions, that might be affecting their mental health adversely. Some of the other interventions focus on changing maladaptive behavioral patterns so that the user can follow through on their daily activities in a positive and fulfilling manner. These interventions target specific mental health issues such as anxiety, stress management, or cognitive skills.
- Intended outcome-based interventions that focus on specific goals or outcomes, such as building resilience, pain–relief, enhancing self-esteem, or improving emotional regulation. Personalized games can track progress toward these outcomes and provide feedback or rewards.
- Proven therapy-based interventions that incorporate techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness, or relaxation exercises. Games can be part of systematic desensitization therapy for phobia and anxiety disorders. By integrating these elements into the game mechanics, therapists can consider several factors such as the client’s physical and mental health history, nature and advancement of the condition, and impact on daily functions. Besides this, therapists can integrate a list of diagnostic assessment tools, activities, and exercises to create a customized treatment regimen for the client. Based on this and adding bespoke elements as necessary, therapists can develop customized compositions for treatment regimens for those in need.
- Test and learn enables mental health professionals and game developers to create trials, test for their new games, and make the necessary updates based on the analysis and feedback.
Engaging in strategic and immersive gameplay can help individuals develop problem-solving skills, improve cognitive function, and alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Encompassing the creative aspects of game development
The gameplay entails designing personalized, intuitive user interfaces, immersive game environments, captivating narratives, and engaging gameplay mechanics.
This offers various benefits to the patients:
- Gameplay promotes relaxation, stress reduction, and emotional regulation by providing immediate feedback and encouraging users to engage in calming activities within the game environment.
- Endogenous games promote intrinsic motivation and personal growth, such as self-reflection and introspection. They often incorporate storytelling, character development, and interactive decision-making to create meaningful and immersive experiences.
- Sensor controllers leverage technologies such as motion sensors, heart rate monitors, or biofeedback devices to capture real-time physiological and emotional data and adapt gameplay based on the user's physiological responses.
- Play interventions include interactive and playful elements such as mini-games, puzzles, quizzes, or interactive tools that offer moments of joy, creativity, and self-expression. Mental health providers can personalize the settings, graphics, and animations with support from generative AI-based image and video libraries.
- Dynamic narrative journeys in personalized games offer guided experiences tailored to the user's needs and goals, such as structured progression, challenges, activities, and milestones designed to foster personal growth, a sense of purpose, and accomplishment. The journeys enable users to select the most engaging path for the user.
- Personalized rewards comprise earning points, badges, leaderboards, unlocking new levels, and motivating users to explore different aspects of the game and strive for continuous improvement.
- Guardrails are essential as they strategically promote responsible gaming. These guardrails could include time limits, reward moderation, informed consent, and progression tracking. Games with biofeedback or neurofeedback can help players learn to control physiological functions like heart rate, which could be beneficial for managing anxiety.
Personalization on the fly can be achieved through real-time data analysis and adaptive algorithms. The gaming platform continuously collects data on player actions, sensors, preferences, and interactions during gameplay. Leveraging AI models based on this data, instant decisions and adjustments to the game can be made in real time, and as the players progress through the game, it automatically adapts and adjusts.
When played mindfully and in moderation, video games can serve as a positive coping mechanism, allowing individuals to manage stress, enhance emotional regulation, and maintain overall mental well-being.
A promising concept
Gaming as a therapy model can provide access to mental health and has the potential to reach a wider audience than traditional therapy methods.
The concept is promising and has the potential to help people all over the world. A personalized gaming framework for mental health enables therapists and business users to create personalized games for mental health without needing a coding background. Technology can truly help democratize gaming and provide access to mental health therapies in a fun and easy way. With gaming, people will be able to leverage mental well-being therapy at their time and pace, which will engage them for hours and days without feeling the pressure of it. It will help people stay committed on the path to recovery and change.
The authors thank Shilpa Rao for her critical business insights and domain expertise that greatly enhanced this research article. As Director of TCS Purpose Institute, her dedication to improving access to care has inspired our work to drive impactful outcomes.
