Most of us have had first aid classes at school and know what to do when someone is physically hurt. But what do you do when your friend is feeling down, stressed out or anxious? What if you notice that your friend has been acting differently than before? As their friend you want to help them, but how?

To answer that question the game design company IJsfontein, the Trimbos Institute and the GEMH lab have developed Moving Stories. Instead of simply telling you about ways in which you can help a struggling friend, the game Moving Stories was designed to give you actual hands-on practice. Just like in regular first aid classes. 

In Moving Stories you, as a player, are staying over at your cousin Lisa’s house. Lisa hasn’t been feeling well lately; she doesn’t enjoy the things she used to enjoy and in the last few days hasn’t come out of bed.You as a friend want to help her. Learn about ways in which you can best help others by trying out different things to help Lisa and receiving personal feedback on your actions from Lisa herself (the person you are trying to help).

To find out more about the program go to https://www.ijsfontein.nl/en/projecten/moving-stories-2.Currently we’re running a large scale study at Dutch high schools to look at the effects of the program. The results will be presented in 2019.