Games and Mental Health

A block of lectures and discussions will focus on one of the most dynamically developing topics at the intersection of psychology, medicine, and the gaming industry: the relationship between games and mental health. How do games affect the psyche of children and adolescents? Where is the line between healthy gaming and risk? And what do we know about their therapeutic potential—in the prevention of anxiety, depression, social isolation, or in working with trauma? Experts in clinical psychology, psychiatry, game therapy, and research will share current insights and open a discussion on how they perceive the field from within: what real progress has been made, where limitations remain, and how the view of games as a therapeutic tool is evolving in the context of contemporary mental health care. The program will also include a topic that is still not sufficiently visible in the Czech context: the development of games for players with visual or hearing impairments. Speakers will explain how accessible games for people with sensory limitations are created—what technical, design, and creative challenges this process involves, what solutions exist today, and why accessibility in games is not only a matter of inclusivity, but also of the very purpose of the medium. After all, games should be for everyone—and that is not just an ideal, but a direction that part of the gaming industry is consciously pursuing.