The first International Gaming Summit on Mental Health is being held this year in Toronto, Canada to address the unique mental health challenges faced by people working in the video game industry.
Speaking to VentureBeat, summit founder Mark Chandler says that the event was born out of his own history with experiencing and speaking out about mental health issues as a member of the game industry.
“It was through that sharing in the industry that people started reaching back to me, or reaching out to me and telling their stories, and that was how this came about,” Chandler tells VentureBeat.
Since, psychosis researcher and professor Paul Fletcher, Take This executive director Eve Crevoshay, Global Game Jam executive director Kate Edwards, and Devolver Digital co-founder Mike Wilson have all signed on as members of the summit’s advisory board.
Organizers say the event aims to start small, and will touch on topics ranging from protecting and supporting employees to how to facilitate open discussion of mental health struggles. The event itself is set to take place over World Mental Health Day and will be held on October 9 and October 10 this year.