Riot and Take This launch mental health tools for marginalised creators
Program gives streamers and players practical tools and resources to support their wellbeing
Riot Games has announced a partnership with charity Take This to support the mental health of players and content creators.
Riot provided Take This with a grant back in May, the announcement said, leading to the creation of a program designed to "meet the needs of casual and professional streamers," giving them practical tools to support their own wellbeing as well as the "mental health needs of their communities."
Several modules will be released, developed by Take This’ clinical experts Dr. Kelli Dunlap and Dr. Raffael Boccamazzo, with the first already available on Take This' website and focusing on the topic of burnout in content creation.
The partnership between Riot and Take This will also take the form of six panel discussions focusing on mental health in marginalised communities, particularly Black, Latine, Indigenous, Trans, East Asian, and South and Southeast Asian Identities, the announcement said.
"This series is being curated and designed by Cassie Walker, LCSW, CCTP, a Black Queer trauma therapist, activist, and gamer who specialises in the intersections of trauma, identity, and mental wellness," it added. "The intentions behind these videos are to provide spaces to center and affirm the lived experiences of people who are frequently tokenized and homogenized through processes of underrepresentation."
The first video, dedicated to the experience of Black communities, is already available on YouTube.
In a similar vein, the Games and Online Harassment Hotline launched an online resource aimed at content creators so they can protect themselves from hate raids last month.
We talked to Take This' Dr. Raffael Boccamazzo last year for an in-depth article about understanding and supporting neurodiversity in the workplace.