Support a kickstarter for a very worthy cause – The Checkpoint Series

checkpoint1If you’re looking for a fantastic kickstarter to support, look no further than The Checkpoint Series – a webseries that aims to raise awareness about mental health issues and help those affected by utilising video games.Launched at the beginning of May, the Checkpoint Series is an extension of Checkpoint, a non-profit organisation run by Dr Jennifer Hazel, which aims to connect mental health resources with video games. The organisation offers a variety of services, including game therapy sessions, running workplace wellness workshops and consultancy services for organisations, and authoring publications about a variety of mental health issues. The organisation also has a presence at many conventions, offering safe spaces for attendees to visit to chill out and relax.

The Checkpoint series kickstarter is aiming to raise $55,000 to fund a 16 episode series which will focus on mental health and video games. The episodes themselves are targeted at everyone and aim to remove the stigma around mental illness by providing evidence-based information surrounding a variety of mental health issues. Utilising real-world stories from game developers and industry insiders who have lived with or experienced mental health issues, as well as interviews with mental health professionals, the kickstarter aims to fully fund a full season (and hopefully a second season) of episodes. Stretch goals include offering podcasts if $60,000 is raised, and added special guests if $80,000 is raised.

There’s only a few days left in the kickstarter, so if you want to contribute to this incredibly important and much needed series, head to this link to pledge some money. As of writing this article, the kickstarter had raised $46,038 of a $55,000 goal. With 5 days to go, the goal is in sight, and it would be a great outcome for this series to be funded.

I’d like to get a little personal here and say that speaking as a psychologist, kickstarters like this one are a very worthwhile and much needed step to reduce the stigma around mental health, and remove the incorrect assumptions that many in our society hold about mental health and mental health issues. It’s past time for us, as a society, to educate ourselves about mental health, and to stop holding outdated and hurtful opinions about what it means to live with, or be affected by, a mental heath issue. Dealing with a mental health issue shouldn’t be something someone goes through alone because of shame or embarrassment, because of the fear of how other people will react if they know about it. Most people will experience a mental health issue at some point in their lives, and that means that most people who you speak to during your day to day life likely either have currently, or have in the past experienced a mental health issue. We need to provide support to others around us who may be doing it tough, and to let others know that experiencing a mental health issue is nothing to be ashamed about, and nothing that should be dealt with alone. By taking steps to educate ourselves about the realities of mental health issues, we are opening up the dialogue around mental health in a positive and constructive way, and we are hopefully contributing to reducing the feeling that those experiencing a mental health issue have to experience it alone.

If you can, and even if you can only give $10, please consider supporting the Checkpoint Series kickstarter. It may only be $10 to you, but to someone experiencing a mental health illness, it may be the difference that makes them feel they’re not alone.


About the Author: Founder & Editor-in-Chief

Tash is a self-diagnosed gaming fanatic with a doctorate in Psychology. She's also a self-confessed Mass Effect fangirl and will likely talk your ears off if you ever get her started on the subject. A lover of all things RPG and adventure, she has more gamer related action figures and memorabilia than any 30 something year old professional has a right to own, and has spent more time than she’d like to admit to daydreaming about exactly what she would do should the Zombie Apocalypse actually happen.

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