North American men’s personal care company Harry’s has launched Talk Squad, a mental health initiative in collaboration with UK-based esports organisation Guild Gaming and mental health service Shout.
The initiative aims to raise awareness of mental health within the gaming industry and the wider community.
The initiative will run from November 28th until December 18th and will provide gamers with free, confidential mental support from Shout‘s trained professionals in addition to one-to-one sessions where they can talk to professionals while playing a range of games. On November 19th, the service will broadcast a stream on Guild’s Twitch channel where influencers will play games while talking to a clinician.
According to a release, the initiative aims to offer sessions ‘in environments where men feel at ease’ in order to ‘break down barriers’ and provide the right support to those seeking it.
Once the Talk Squad initiative has ended, findings will be analysed to see if there is the potential for gaming-focused mental health sessions to take place more frequently alongside ensuring such initiatives are accessible to those looking for digital solutions.
The gaming and esports industries are no stranger to hosting a wealth of initiatives to raise awareness about mental health. In October 2024, esports tournament organiser BLAST joined forces with Movember to launch activations and a campaign focused on men’s mental health.
For Guild Esports, the collaboration is the first since it was acquired by DCB Sports LLC for £100,000 plus liabilities in October. Prior to the acquisition, the organisation partnered with PUBG Mobile to field a roster in the mobile battle royale’s esports circuit.
Nick Westwood, Chief Creative Officer at Guild Gaming, spoke on the initiative: “We are honoured at Guild to be involved in such an important cause, one that has not been raised enough, particularly in the gaming space.
“We hope that Talk Squad will get the ball rolling for a wider conversation around mental health in gaming, whether that is talking things through with your online squad. This initiative will encourage men to talk more about their emotions, and provide them with a more comfortable space to speak in.”
