UNDERSTANDING MENTAL ILL-HEALTH
Helping to develop lifelong resilience
With, as he puts it, ‘funding shortfalls in the billions, year-long wait times for CAMHS referrals, and young people in crisis being left in limbo’, Phil Tottman, the developer of Book of Beasties: The Mental Wellness Card Game, which won the Concept Product Innovation of the Year Award at the 2019 Design in Mental Health Awards in May, explains how the mental health pressures facing UK schools and young people today inspired him and a small team to develop the imaginative and thought-provoking game.
I believe we can consistently embark on the road to the resolution of an issue by having a simple conversation. Be those issues physical, mental, internal, external, temporary, or terminal; the human brain is such a powerful machine that it can adapt to, cope with, and bounce back from, the darkest of places. A conversation, in my opinion, is the key to that kind of resilience, the crux of coping – if you will – with inevitable adversity. The sharing of concerns or traumas with each other lets us know that we are not alone in our experiences. That others feel the same fears, and fear the same feelings as we do, and that there are plenty of ways in which each individual manages all of this that others may find helpful, is often reassuring. That is potentially one of the main benefits of counselling; the patient can feel empowered to speak openly and freely without the fear of judgment or marginalisation. It is ‘better out than in’, after all.
Equally, when we meet up with friends and ‘set the world to rights’, we can come away feeling lighter, and in some ways ‘cleaner’, as though whatever was clogging our thoughts had been flushed out in the form of carbon dioxide and sound. Having said all this, I have portrayed this exercise as something that is simple, and in theory it is, but if you are experiencing issues such as anxiety and depression – especially if you are a child – having the sort of conversation that I’ve just described can seem about as achievable as climbing Everest backwards.
Out of one’s ‘comfort zone’ Keeping in mind that one in nine children aged five to 15 has a mental health disorder, according to the Mental Health Foundation,1 and that is a lot of young people not climbing Everest. Having been part of the statistic in the past, I can confirm that the last thing I wanted to do was talk to anyone. That was way out of my comfort zone, and still is in many cases – especially not in in such a direct scenario. If only there was a focused distraction that
THE NETWORK | OCTOBER 2019
The game’s aim is to help as many Beasties as possible – each representing a certain manifestation of anxiety, depression, or associated emotions – using specific items that translate into wellness exercises or discussion topics.
allowed me to talk about me, without actually talking about me.
My personal experiences, paired with my belief in the power of conversation, left me determined to create something that could help children and young people feel confident talking openly and positively about their mental health, and introduce ways in which they could potentially feel better.
In 2016 I thus teamed up with illustrator and co-developer, Tom Dryland, and, drafting in my graphic-designer wife, Nadia, we set to work testing ways in which we could – without prior experience in teaching, psychology, or game development – produce something useful for teachers, of psychologist standard, and delivered in a manner that was appealing for children.
Launch at a gaming convention Two years later – following successful school trials and a triumphant campaign on the crowdfunding website, Kickstarter – the first version of Book of Beasties was
launched at a tabletop gaming convention within the majestic walls of Alexandra Palace in London. This brings me to what I am meant to be talking about – ‘Book of Beasties: The Mental Wellness Card Game’.
What is Book of Beasties? Book of Beasties is a whole school- approach, early intervention mental wellness resource aimed at Key Stage two and three. The game is accompanied by a series of lessons focusing on various topics of discussion, exploring different activities and exercises. As a whole, Book of Beasties aspires to raise emotional literacy, as well as to normalise the open and positive conversation about mental health, wellness, and emotions. The aim of the game is to help as many Beasties as possible – each representing a certain manifestation of anxiety, depression, or associated emotions – using specific items that translate into wellness exercises or topics of discussion that can be explored throughout the game.
We incorporate yoga, creative tasks, 27
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