Take This: The bumpy road for mental health advocacy

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Over the years, the games industry has grown more receptive to providing its employees with mental health resources and tools. Studios have been more open to seeking help from experts to help care for their employees.

One of the organizations helping combat the stigma and increasing support for mental health in games is Take This. GamesIndustry.biz talks with the organization's executive director, Eve Crevoshay, and clinical program manager, Cassie Walker, about working for a more mental health-considerate industry.

Take This has been in operation since 2012, and Crevoshay, who has been there for the past five, explains that advocacy work remains difficult.

"The cultural conversation about mental health has shifted dramatically in the game industry. [COVID-19] was a huge driver of that for game studios; their cultures and the well-being of people who make games," the director explains.

"There was a huge increase in awareness around well-being. Some of that has receded since the pandemic has 'ended.' There's a greater awareness and importance of doing good representation in games."

Walker adds that while the industry's increasing mental health awareness has improved, there are still more inroads and opportunities to address.

"How we talk about things and which things we talk about is an issue. We're still hyper-focused on this Westernized, hyper-individualistic version of mental health. We're still getting a lot of pushback on the root causes of distress [for people]. We're still getting pushback on getting buy-in for people to address the racism and extremism, sexism and transphobia in their workplace, content, and the spaces created around the medium