At-Risk Assists Educators in Identifying Student Depression

Training simulations developer Kognito has released At-Risk, a web-based serious game application designed to increase the willingness and skill of educational faculty to identify student mental distress and thoughts of suicide. At-Risk puts users in the role of a faculty member who has noticed signs of distress in six of his students. Users must analyze character profiles in order to narrow down the faculty member's suspicions to a group of three at-risk students. Through a series of simulated conversations with these students, Kognito hopes that users will become aware of when and how to refer mentally distressed students to the campus counseling center. Initial testing of the program found that 87% of educators who played At-Risk reported that they are better prepared to identify, approach, and refer students showing signs of mental distress. 82% of users found themselves more confident in their abilities to help suicidal students. 99% claimed that At-Risk's conversations were realistic representations of likely conversations with distressed or suicidal students. At-Risk was developed in partnership with the Mental Health Association of New York City. A demo version of At-Risk is available at http://www.kognito.com/atrisk.