As school has already swung back into action, students have returned from their stress-free summer lives. Or so you might think. With the advent of technologies like Facebook and Twitter, students who experience troubles at school can no longer escape them in the summer months. As well-meaning students have found a way to enter the online world to express themselves, so too have those looking to bully and terrorize others. Bullying is just one of the many factors we can attribute to teen suicide and along with it can come the issue of mental health.
As part of the TIGed resources, the Mental Health game "Brain Waves" is a fun and unique way to raise awareness about the ways in which we suffer quietly from mental illness. I have played through it and didn't do as well as I should have, but to me that's the point of the game. I didn't get all the answers correct, because like many of us, there is much about mental illness I don't know.
The game was featured on CBC's The National on Sunday Oct. 2nd 2011. The story brought attention to the many youth who suffer in silence from mental illness. Often, those who are suffering the most may appear to be perfectly fine - until it's too late.
The Mental Health game "Brain Waves" and other resources provided on the TIGed website are great tools to help youth develop their understanding of mental illness. It's also a great way to get the discussion going and allow youth to realize they are not alone.
For those of you that are interested, here is the link to our segment...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSB4MidvCoc
-Steve