I'm a touch confused by the wording here and would love some clarification. Are games submitted for this jam expected to address mental health and mental illness as a topic, with the aim of destigmatizing the illnesses themselves and creating some level of representation and awareness for sufferers (something like The Cat Lady, or Senua's Sacrifice - I think the former was more successful than the latter, but that's beside the point) ... or are they expected to function as effective therapeutic tools in their own right?
If the latter, are these intended to have real clinical applications with real medical benefits for sufferers beyond a few minutes or hours of distraction? Let's say I have severe depression, PTSD, OCD, and anxiety (I do, in fact) ... are these games expected to provide an experience that, were I to play them, would induce me to feel tangibly better in the long term, such that the game could at the very least become an ongoing additional treatment option alongside my therapy, medication, support groups, etc.?
If so, could you provide examples of games that have been successfully used in this manner thus far, and I mean clinically and with clear, proven results, so we could have some notion of what to aspire to ... and so I could add those games to my own treatment plan, because honestly that would be amazing. Off the top of my head, the only thing I can think of is something like Superbetter, which I have tried, and which proved to be more of an overcomplicated, glorified to-do list with gamified components which ultimately did very little that a regular paper to-do list couldn't do.
While executive dysfunction is something many of us mentally ill folks suffer from, and while it is the low hanging fruit, so to speak, when it comes to seemingly addressable issues, it ultimately results in the creation of mere productivity software and doesn't address the core issue, since the mere act of using the software / playing the game (no matter how fun it is to a healthy mind) becomes "just another thing I am supposed to do" to someone with severe illness related fatigue, motivation issues, anhedonia, and executive dysfunction, which are pretty common symptoms for a lot of mental illnesses.
It's a bit like telling a depressed person to "just exercise' or "try yoga" - those things may certainly have long term benefits when practiced with consistency and rigor, but if you're already going through clinical depression, you may have a hard time simply getting out of bed, getting dressed, or showering. Jogging or yoga are usually out of the question. When it comes to games, I can get so depressed that my favorite games of all time seem like an utter chore. I was so depressed last month, and so deep in dissociation from the PTSD, that I was utterly uninterested in anything, including playing Elden Ring. I have been letting Elden Ring (Elden Ring!) just sit there, gathering dust, for weeks! Instead I basically just stared at the wall for hours, more or less. The very thought of doing something, ANYTHING that I absolutely didn't have to do in order to simply stay alive, was impossible.
So ultimately, any game that would successfully achieve clinical results, or even provide temporary relief during an actual symptoms heavy period (anyone can play games, or do some form of yoga, when they're feeling at least sort of okay), has to act on one's psyche so quickly, reliably, and effortlessly that it will easily and consistently be able to overcome that initial motivation barrier. It would have to be accessible in ways I can't even imagine. It's have to be something that I could pick up and feel better within a few minutes, and that sense of improved wellness would need to last long after I stopped playing. As of right now, there aren't even any medications that can do that (safely and without severe damage and risk of addiction). Antidepressants, which are comparatively safe and have a low side effect profile, take a month on average to actually start kicking in. Anything that provides relief faster usually has all kinds of risks, dangers, and caveats. Therapy with trained professionals can take many, many years before any long term results are seen, and those results generally come in the form of improved and refined coping mechanisms at best. Most of these illnesses don't have cures, only treatments and management options.
As you can see, I am quite interested in participating in this jam, as the topic is near and dear to my heart, but I am currently a bit skeptical if we're expected to attempt the second goal. A game ABOUT depression or PTSD is something I can make from the heart. If I were able to make a game that successfully TREATS depression or PTSD ... well, I'd have done that by now. Or if I am not fit for the task, I would have thought someone would have done that by now, and likely become fabulously wealthy as a result. I suppose I am open to trying to make "therapeutic" games if the inherent limitations of the exercise are acknowledged and addressed, and if the whole thing was treated, and judged, based on the aspirational study in hope and creativity. That would, after all, be an attempt to create a product that could literally change the world by simply existing.
On a somewhat related note, is this a video-game only jam, or are analogue games, such as tabletop rpgs and larps, acceptable for submission? When it comes to those media, I have seen some clinical application, or at least treatment adjacent applications, since larps especially are essentially designed to create catharsis and have a strong connection to the practices of psychodrama and certain forms of therapy. Even so, these have been limited in scope so far. Obviously, anything that could ellicit "trauma reduction" levels of catharsis also has the potential to simply intensify or trigger trauma, and the legal liability issues were such games undertaken as explicit treatment, would be potentially ruinous.