Helping Hand
Helping Hand is a digital game focused on strengthening adolescents’ abilities to deal with mentally challenging situations, including anxiety, bullying and depression.
What is Helping Hand?
Through a series of life-like scenarios the game enables players to train on positive decision-making and strengthen their resolve to ask for help when they need it.
About Helping Hand
In Helping Hand the player helps a friend to master emotional challenges, such as fear of giving presentations, dealing with criticism, suicidal thoughts and bad memories.
The game can be used as pure self-help, or in blended learning in groups, or in full classrooms.
Helping Hand is based on an award-winning evidence-based method developed by Dr. Solfrid Raknes and collaborators, and associated with development of stronger social and emotional skills.
Real Impact
99%Adolescents reported normal wellbeing 10 weeks on compared to 28% before playing the game
2000Syrian teenagers helped in camps in Central Beqaa, Lebanon15%Average improvement in well-being (WHO5) amongst Syrian refugees participating in pilot studies using Helping Hand
9%Decrease from 61% to 9% in the proportion of youth reporting need for support after playing the gameAccreditations & Awards
initiative by World Economic
Forum in 2022
Health in 2020
The Helping Hand in the headlines
We're delighted that news is spreading about this impactful solution with recent coverage in the Boston Globe newspaper and NPR Radio in the USA.
"People are the same wherever we are. We want to feel we are of high value. To feel we are loved. To believe in ourselves. People who are able to tell with words what they are feeling and thinking cope better."
What our users and teachers think
"The app taught me how to express my feelings."
"I was always scared in front of the class. Now I feel
more confident.""We are kinder to each other."
"I am a better problem solver now."
"I recommend the game to all my friends."
"I am coping better with stress."
"Now I know I'm not the only one struggling."
"I learned that I don’t need to be ashamed of being a refugee."
"I can use this method to solve every kind of my problems."
"It can help you to believe in yourself and stand up for yourself."
"It will change the way you think."
A solution that matters
Tackling the global mental health crisis amongst young people
- Annual losses in human capital from mental health conditions in children aged 0–19 is estimated to US$387.2 billion.
- About half of Americans and Europeans will meet the criteria for a diagnosable mental health condition some time in their life
- Only a minority of young people have actual access to evidence based mental health support
- Addressing mental health symptoms early is critically important for overall health.
- Median government expenditure on mental health globally is a mere 2.1% of overall health expenditure
- Lack of mental health professionals, cost and stigma are limiting factors for implementing psychosocial interventions
- Interventions that can be implemented without the trained therapists, as self-help or by teachers/psychosocial staff after short training, can be upscaled to reach most young people.
"Helping Hand gives young people a chance to work through problems and painful experiences safely. It’s about creating safety and calm and comfort, which is critical to first aid. It’s also about self-empowerment and hope, which are principles that are important in psychological first aid."
CASE STUDY
Attensi’s simulation expertise
helps children hurt by war
Game-playing techniques make a difference for young refugees.
99% adolescents reported normal wellbeing 10 weeks on compared to 28% before playing the game
2,000 Syrian teenagers helped in camps in Central Beqaa, Lebanon
Bjarne Johnson, former Attensi CCO Norway and EU, was moved by the plight of the child refugees from Syria’s civil war he saw on the news.
He knew that simulation therapy has been used to offer psychological first aid to trauma victims. He knew that Attensi had lots to offer in the field.
It sparked a collaboration with child psychologist Dr Solfrid Raknes, the Norwegian Government, publisher Gyldendal and aid workers to develop the Helping Hand app.
Developed in Partnership
Dr. Solfrid Raknes and Attensi
Dr. Solfrid Raknes
Norwegian Clinical psychologist, researcher & program developer
- Innovator behind a prize winning cognitive behavioral based psychosocial material widely used in school health services and schools (Helping Hand, Psychological First Aid, Vaag).
- Implementation specialist involved in a wide spectrum of humanitarian and research projects in Europe, US, and Lebanon.
- Her programs are translated into 8 languages and used across cultural and economic divides in many countries, and implemented to 800 000 children in Norway and extensively in Lebanon
- Experienced psychologist, and supervisor.
- Norwegian PhD; 4 years in Lebanon
Attensi
Company specialized in gamified training simulations
- Norwegian company established in 2009 delivering groundbreaking learning tools and technology
- Combines advanced 3D modelling with deep insight into human behavior and psychology, training people in authentic situations that involve human interaction.
- Attensi’s goal is to enable people to unleash their full potential of by creating world-leading training simulations.
- Attensi’s solutions enable simulation of any kind of human interaction, whether it be dialogues, situations and use of machines and systems in a cost-effective and scalable way.
- Attensi currently has 200 employees and serves more than 120 customers globally
CASE STUDY
Attensi offers helping hand to
Ukraine’s child refugees
This digital game gives troubled youngsters a way to deal with trauma.
Attensi is reaching out a helping hand to child victims of the war in Ukraine.
We are extending a project which has already successfully supported youngsters hurt and displaced by Syria’s civil war to victims of the conflict in Eastern Europe.
Helping Hand is a digital role-playing game, similar to those we create for businesses to train their teams around the world. It takes players through a series of life-like scenarios in a computer game-style setting and offers them a range of responses to choose from.
The game is designed to reinforce positive decision-making and to strengthen adolescents’ resolve to ask for help when they need it...
STUDY
A Helping Hand for Ukraine
Dr. Solfrid Raknes, has also conducted a study on the use of Helping Hand in Ukraine. The results highlight how the Helping Hand solution can significantly reduce anxiety and depression among youth affected by war.
Building peace is essential for mental health, and adolescents in war zones urgently need culturally adapted, evidence-based psychosocial support.
"Adolescents can learn what it takes to contribute their ideas and take part not just in the game, but in real life."
Available in:
Norwegian
English
French
Ukrainian
Arabic