A Gamified Tool to Raise Awareness and Encourage Identifying and Reporting Verbal Abuse

Speakers: Judit Csere, Holly Parker and Jack Stallard

Verbal abuse when the abuser intends to humiliate, intimidate, and denigrate the victim is detrimental for mental health and dramatically degrades psychological safety, however, it is prevalent in higher education settings and workplaces, including St George`s. A barrier to decreasing verbal abuse in social settings is the lack of awareness of what is classified as verbal abuse, and how to ask for support.

Our project focuses on the development of a card game that presents concise situational case studies regarding verbal abuse on one side and shows the definition of that type of abuse on the other side, also signposting users to existing support infrastructure at St George`s. We will collect real-life case studies from students and staff, classify, anonymise, and shorten them, and print them to create a playful and attractive card game.

Testing of the cards is implemented through user focus groups to assess uptake and effectiveness, and independent mental health professionals review classifications. Through this game users will be able to self-reflect and quiz each-other in a social setting increasing awareness of what verbal abuse is, and how to ask for help. We will also plan a highly interactive workshop around using the cards, providing a tool for, equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) related workshops for the student union and professional services.

Through this project, we aim to increase better awareness about verbal abuse, and increased awareness of already available support services at St George`s. We believe that this project has the potential to improve psychological safety, promote positive workplace culture, and improve EDI at St George`s. The next steps to increase impact will include digitalisation and disseminating the tool in other higher education institutes.

Sign up for this event by emailing Ldickens@sgul.ac.uk