According to the 2020 report of Europe’s Videogames Industry (ISFE), 72% of the European population aged between 15 and 24 play video games. People in the EU spend an average of 8.6 hours per week playing video games. In a worldwide context, epidemiologic studies dictate that the prevalence of gaming disorder ranges from less than 1.0% to 26.8%. In 2018, gaming disorder was classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). ICD-11 is the global standard for diagnostic health information, a tool that is used by health professionals in order to diagnose and make treatment plans for medical conditions. The inclusion of gaming disorder in the ICD-11 list increases the interest of researchers and professionals in the healthcare sector for this issue and highlight the importance of meeting the needs of young people at risk of gaming disorder and professionals that are called to help them.
The project’s aim is to prepare youth organizations and youth workers to identify the early signs and prevent the development of gaming disorder among youth. More specifically, the project has the following objectives:
Raise awareness on the negative effects of excessive gaming.
Provide youth workers and youth organizations with the knowledge to recognise the signs of gaming disorder,
disambiguating it from normal gaming behaviour.
Equip youth workers with the tools to identify early signs and prevent gaming disorder.
Promote the development of new policies for the identification and prevention of gaming disorder
The main outputs of MINDSET are:
WP2: Guide for youth workers that includes suggestions for the organizational changes that need to tackle gaming disorder.
WP3: Capacity Building program that will familiarise youth workers with useful tools that will assist them in the process of identification and prevention of gaming disorder
WP4: Policy recommendations and roadmap to Map the needs for policy changes in order to respond to the emerging needs of young people with gaming disorder or at risk of developing gaming disorder.
Website: https://mindseterasmusproject.eu/
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