Mental ESCAPE

Background Mental ESCAPE is an attempt to use Escape Games, that are actually popular recreational activities, to engage young people in a dialogue about Mental Health. Not only since COVID has there been a tendency toward social isolation and escape into digital media offerings, which could lead to (gaming) addiction with the appropriate triggers and a corresponding mental disposition. At the same time, we are observing an increasing number of depression symptoms among young people, which receive little treatment, especially in low-income countries. Since these phenomena do not take place in secret, but in the daily environment of our youth work, the participating organizations were concerned to destigmatize Mental Health problems and to generate an understanding for affected persons, and ultimately to create a social awareness for sometimes very inadequate health care systems. Objectives The goal of Mental ESCAPE was therefore to develop a game-based educational format where participants learn to see the signs of mental health problems and gain knowledge about gambling addiction or depression. By dealing with the topic, young people should be able to distinguish facts from stereotypes and learn to understand the perspectives of those affected and their relatives. The main objective of the Mental Escape was to build two physical rooms and at least one online escape game and to document the learnings of this process in a toolkit for youthworkers. Based on three main concepts, Non-formal Education, Mental Health and Gamification, that are represented by the partner-organisations of the consortium, the aim is to explore a new educational methodology and to learn how to use the power of escape rooms as a tool of learning and to use gamification for youth empowerment. . As another asset, the Mental Escape project should contribute to the mental health side, raising awareness and reducing the public stigma in different societies. We try to develop critical reflection on the topic and oneself by spreading the results of the project into local youth work and initiatives that deal with mental health issues. Implementation According to the objectives and to the Intellectual Outputs envisioned in the project, the Consortium implemented several activities in order to guarantee its success. They were divided in project management and coordination activities and in activities dedicated to the design and creation of the Intellectual Outputs and to those dedicated to the organisation of the learning activities. We started (a little time delayed, due to COVID restrictions) with a desk research to learn about gambling addiction and depression and to define personas based on interviews with affected people. Based on this research we implemented two workgroups for the implementation of the escape games to come up with some practical ideas. Based on the concept work and connected challenges we started to work on the toolkit and the online versions. The first and the later phases of the project were accompanied by some coordinators meetings, the second, more practical phase by two learning and training activities with young people from organisations connected by the project. For the last months we set up some dissimination events for our youth-working networks to share our learnings and findings. Achievements Concrete Outputs of the project are: -Texts as results of the desk research on (gambling) addiction and depression, educational gaming and escape games and mental health as a human right -An educational mobile escape game on the topic of gambling addiction in 7 suitcases in Almuñécar, Spain that can be run as a whole or devided in smaller groups -An educational escape room on the topic of depression in Unna, Germany, that can be played in groups of maximum 8 people -The draft for an wordpress add-on to design online escape games -An international Online Version of the addiction game, designed with the wordpress add-on -An international Online Version of the depression game, designed with an escape game tool in cooperation with a local escape game company -Documentation of the results in a toolkit for youthworkers and on the project website -Dissimination Events with experts on youthwork and mental health to present the results as innovative tools for the local youthwork