Digital Therapies

Abstract

Today, digital transformation and virtualization processes profoundly affect societies; not only in terms of socio-economic disruption, but also in terms of rising mental health problems. This paper focuses on the design aspects and the use of “nurture games” as a social utility of preventive measures (that is referred to in this paper as “Digital Therapies”), in the realm of nurturing and public school education, supporting therapeutic benefit and well-being. The Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), employed for treating a large number of mental problems, is considered here as a fundamental psychotherapeutic approach, which needs to underpin the design of games aiming to improve mental health and support the prevention of challenging behaviors in youth.