Book of Beasties
A game with a positive aim
Schools are facing a mental health crisis with children referred to professional services such as CAMHS, facing lengthy wait times of up to and over three years, and no proven effective resource previously in place to support them.
Book of Beasties creates psychologist endorsed games for schools and parents that encourage young people to explore emotions, mental health, wellness as well as coping mechanisms and exercises that could potentially be beneficial should issues arise.
The debut game Book of Beasties: The Mental Wellness Card Game and lesson plan has been recognised with a number of awards and praised by the likes of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital and Ty Hafan Hospice in Wales.
Dr Tony Bates of the University College of Dublin has even dubbed the game "revolutionary."
"[Book of Beasties] will change how young people think about their mental health for the rest of their lives."
Mental health and young people
Currently being used in schools and organisations around the world by hundreds of teachers and thousands of children, Book of Beasties is growing its inventory of games and resources alongside the psychology school at the University of West London.
The team behind the Beasties aims to be a pioneer in using play to better explore and teach topics such as mental health and wellbeing to children and young people for years to come.
The initial inspiration behind Book of Beasties was our own personal experience and learning that the lack of support for this particular topic that we discovered when we were at school, remained.
From our school trials we discovered an incredible willingness to openly discuss what we as adults still largely deem to be taboo. – Book of Beasties team
Sponsored by
This business was made possible with the help of Westmont Enterprise Hub at the University of West London.
The Hub supports start-ups with technical resources, mentoring, commercialisation, space and the exchange of ideas within a like-minded community.
We focus on the creative technology sectors in line with the west London creative cluster on areas such as media, digital, cyber, blockchain and health.