Mental Wellbeing with Grads in Games is a new monthly article that promotes positive mental wellbeing for students and industry professionals – This includes advice, guidance and highlighting those in the industry that are taking active steps to make their working environment a safer space.

The Holiday season is fast approaching and although we are excited here at Grads in Games, this time can be a difficult time for some individuals, especially students and workers who live abroad and can’t go home.

However, there is some amazing information over at Mind with tips for coping through the Christmas period! One really useful tip is how great online communities and staying connected online can be during this time! It’s so much easier and more accessible to connect with family and friends over the internet to combat loneliness!

I remember working with students during the COVID period and one individual couldn’t go home during a break in their university Studies. However, they were able to connect with one of their friends back home through playing ‘It Takes Two’ with them over this period! – A great example of how connectivity and gaming can improve mental health!

Here at Grads in Games, we are planning some great things regarding positive Mental Heath – We have a Mental Health First Aider in our new Marketing and Operations Assistant – Harry! He will be running an event for our student Ambassadors in January which focuses on Stress and Time Management! 

We are also collaborating with Safe in Our World – an amazing Mental Health Charity that is doing some fantastic work in fostering worldwide mental health awareness within the video game industry. We urge you to check them out!

Wellbeing Spotlight – Futurlab

Futurlab recently took part in our Career Connector and in doing so managed to highlight how much of a progressive and employee-friendly outlook they have on Mental Wellbeing.

Their team take well-being very seriously – They have a Mental Health First Aider that holds weekly catch-ups to make sure that all their team members have the chance to talk about their progress on things they are doing outside of work and to make sure that everyone is doing okay.

Duvet Days have also been implemented at Futurlab. If you are feeling overwhelmed mentally or are feeling overwhelmed you have a ‘Duvet Day’ to take some time to recoup.

We also applaud Futurlab for wanting to support their staff who are struggling with their well-being. A member of the team wrote a blog post about her experience of mental health and how the supportive management and colleagues at Futrlab were instrumental in her recovery. This blog post can be viewed here.

‘Kindness’ is one of the core values at Futurlab and they believe that patience is one of the key things that makes great games – this outlook is refreshing and set’s the standard of how studios can go above and beyond for their employees!

We hope all our readers look after themselves this Holiday Season – Our next post will be in January –  Mind also has a great list of contacts if you are struggling this season which we will leave here.

Stay Safe,

The Grads in Games Team