UK Government backs Mobile Game to help Children's Mental Health During Covid-19
Brightlobe, a pioneering UK child health startup and games studio - is pleased to announce the launch of Kai’s Sanctuary, a new mobile game explicitly made to help children improve their mental health during the coronavirus pandemic. Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, fully funded Kai’s Sanctuary to help children better manage their emotions with a breathtaking array of mindfulness and relaxation techniques. Kai’s Sanctuary launches today for free on iOS and Android with no hidden costs and no in-app purchases.
Jane O’Rourke, Child, Adolescent and Family Psychotherapist, commented:
“Over 80% of children with mental health difficulties said that COVID-19 had worsened their mental health. Children are feeling increasingly lonely and anxious, with a third unable to access the support they need. With Kai’s Sanctuary's app exercises, children can build a sense of self-agency so they feel more in control of their anxiety. Kai’s Sanctuary’s endearing characters encourage children to slow down with exercises like deep breathing. Slowing down calms the nervous system and increases children's capacity for self-reflection, so they can begin to identify their emotional states – and begin to understand the minds and feelings of others. Brightlobe is giving children in the UK a tool they can take with them for the rest of their lives, whenever they need to steady, calm and self-reflect.”
Kai’s Sanctuary features the biggest selection of gamified exercises rooted in mindfulness CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) available in a single mobile app. The game’s key protagonist is called Kai, an apprentice healer who works in a futuristic sanctuary that takes in sick or wounded guardians. The guardians are protectors of children in a world inspired by an original children’s novel written by Brightlobe CEO and Founder Shivani Lamba. Kai’s Sanctuary features a stunning feature set such as calming yoga exercises with a guru sloth, exciting augmented reality adventures, full-body scanning games, deep breathing exercises with virtual creatures, and digital emotional assessment exercises.
Shivani Lamba, CEO and Founder of Brightlobe, commented:
“Prior to the first coronavirus lockdown in March, Brightlobe was piloting our game-based developmental assessment platform, which is due for release in 2021. Early data showed that children's mental health was worsening, so we proposed a game-based solution to address this crisis. We thank Innovate UK for believing in the strength of our project, as our game is based firmly within published clinical research on the efficacy of mindfulness CBT. Kai's Sanctuary will evolve over time, with new content updates. This beta rollout for Kai’s Sanctuary will see Brightlobe actively engage with its capped launch audience to ensure future iterations are fully optimised before a global rollout. We'll also be supporting Kai's Sanctuary with Brightlobe Village, an interactive community during Q4, which will help the Brightlobe team to improve the release based on community feedback.”
Kai’s Sanctuary is the first content release from Brightlobe. The team is currently developing the world's first game-based developmental assessment platform, offering parents and physicians key insights into a child's trajectory to inform personalised, early interventions for conditions like ADHD and autism. The new product lives in the same IP universe as Kai's Sanctuary.
