This week we take a some what more serious tone. The question this week is from Marcela Roberts:
What do you think about using video games to help with mental health?
Read on to see our answers
Marcela, I think using video games for health issues is a great idea. Gaming is already used as a way for people with disabilities to interact with others. It also can bring them a sense of accomplishment or achievement for beating the levels. It helps patients to lower their stress. Plus many older generation individuals use the Wii to help keep their mobility going. It gives them a easier way to stay mobile and exercise without the impact you would get from exercising from jumping, and other exercises.
Even though it doesn't effect everyone, it hits closer to home many times. Nobody expects to get sick, and I learned that first hand with my cousin a while back. My cousin had a spinal stroke at the age of 18, and now is in a wheel chair. He loves video games, and uses it as another way for him to interact with his friends. It has really helped him, due to he used to be very active in sports and other activities before he had the spinal stroke.
I know video games will not work for every case, but if it can help an individual to cope or even conquer their illness, then I feel it is a great asset to the health field. There is a group called the Games for Health, that has a convention to discuss and showcase ways to use video games to support health. One way is to use video games for rehab and therapy. They have created a version of Guitar Hero to help aid in arm amputee rehab, they have a Parkinson's Disease version of the Wii that is currently being developed to help PD patients with balance and mobility, and much more. These are just a few of the many ways that video games are being brought into the health field, and I am sure there will be many more to come.
I think it is ground best tread carefully upon. It's important we don't start marketing GTA4 and Super Smash Brothers as tools of healing for post-op brain surgery patients. However, it would be a worthwhile endeavor to use video game technology to create games suited to the purpose of strengthening hand/eye coordination, memory, and other brain function for patients who may have suffered an accident and lost those abilities. I think something like this would be beneficial for people who suffered head trauma and lost function they may have once had; but I would hazard a guess that, in the case of your blog example, it would do very little to help neuroses like OCD.
I am all about using video games to help anyone. Using anything for a positive purpose is always good. Although I do not believe something as simple as just a video game can help most metal illnesses, those issues are so much more deep rooted than that. But hey, if someone wants to try it and something positive can come out of it, then why not.
I am all for video games helping any kind of illness whether it is a mental or physical illness. One of my cousins has a muscular disease that pretty much makes his hands useless to him. My sister and I would always play video games with him whenever he wasn't going through his physical therapy. It helped him a lot because he needed to try and get some strength in his hands and sitting down gave his back and legs a break as well --he has to use a walker in order to actually be able to get anywhere around the house.
Video games are a great way of building hand-eye coordination and for a victim who went through anything that has traumatized their brain I think would help them out greatly. There are certain games that would be pointless to use for this --Grand Theft Auto or Military Games-- but then there are some awesome games that aren't as violent but can help out a lot --Spyro or Guitar Hero. Gaming is also a good way to pass the time for those that have to stay in the hospital for long periods of time because it gives them the opportunity to communicate with others and enjoy their time in the hospital when it would normally be a very boring stay.
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