Bringing out the best through gaming

A GEELONG initiative that uses gaming as a therapeutic tool for youth and young adults is being rolled out across the state, with plans for greater distribution in coming years.

GAMER, a program established at mental health and disability support provider genU, helps people self-develop interpersonal, identity, and coping skills by engaging with a variety of games that best reflect and engage them.

“Essentially, GAMER leverages what is a universal concept for everybody, and that’s play,” designer Paris Conte said.

“From the day we’re born, everything we basically learn is through play.”

Mr Conte said clients choose from a variety of games, inclduing consoles, role playing, board and card games, wargaming and minis painting, to begin the process.

“The way our program and environment is set up is us not dictating what should be done, but using games to mould the social environment they are in and give them the opportunities to encounter the skills they need to work on, trial them, test them, until they master it for themselves,” he said.

Mr Conte said a program participant who was extremely nervous and considered mute found his voice, and more, through the program.

“I did what I do for everybody and treated them like a gamer, a person. I discovered they love Pokemon and in that game you get to name your nemesis; they went with Buttface,” he said.

“Every time that popped up it grew to a smile, then a giggle… then their support worker came bursting through the door a few months later shouting that their client had just spoken.

“The young man knew how to speak, but it was just about being in a place where they were treated like an individual, where they belong.
“Our role is to see which moments engage the individual, and then water it like a flower.

“Because everything we do is wrapped up in that ball of fun that is gaming, the ease of learning is far greater.”

What started as concept from Mr Conte in 2018 at genU, GAMER now now operates out of five sites in Victoria, with three in Melbourne, one in Geelong and another in Colac.

An acronym for Growth, Achievement, Mindfulness, Engagement and Resilience, GAMER is also being rolled out online and is about to be used as the basis for a research project that will bolster its anecdotal success with scientific study.

“We’ve have had a lot of happy crying moments… it’s certainly grown into something more than I thought it would achieve,” Mr Conte said.