Grand River Hospital – Child and Adolescent Inpatient Mental Health Unit (CAIP)

The Child and Adolescent Inpatient Mental Health Unit (CAIP) in Grand River Hospital, Kitchener, Ontario, provides care for children and adolescents under the age of 18. This secure 13-bed short-stay unit offers a safe and structured environment for those experiencing significant difficulties with daily functioning and who require intensive hospital care, including a high-observation area for individuals needing the highest level of support.

In consultation with staff at the Child and Adolescent Inpatient Mental Health Unit (CAIP) at Grand River Hospital, we developed a board game collection tailored for use with children and youth 8 – 18 years of age receiving short-term inpatient care. The focus was on use of the games during informal get-together times and not during therapy sessions. Due to the secure and sensitive nature of the unit, we adapted our usual trialling process as we could not enter the unit. Instead, we held a longer meeting with staff to go over the games in the collection and explain in more detail how they are played. From this session, we made up a preliminary collections that was dropped off with staff for several weeks to give them a chance to explore and trial independently within their therapeutic and recreational programming. Following this, adjustments to the collection were made based on their feedback. This adapted process was also used in other secure community locations where more sensitive security issues for residents were a priority, such as our work with Women’s Crisis Services of Waterloo Region where we developed board game collections for their two shelter locations.

Below we list the considerations that we ultimately took into account in deciding which games to include in both collections. You will also find a Table listing all the board games and accompanying materials we developed that are openly available to all.

The materials here are provided openly for other interested schools and community locations to use and adapt according to a CC BY-NC license, unless stated otherwise. This license allows re-users to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. (The creator for the text of these materials should be indicated to be Daniela O'Neill. Some items may have other stated attributions, such as photographs or drawings for which sources and any applicable permissions are noted).

Note that you can find other materials, such as 5 bright posters about the value of board game play and a pamphlet of tips for parents playing with young children, in our Library Section.

Some of the most important considerations that led to either a game being included or not included in the CAIP collection as a result of our consultations with staff members and their own independent trialling of the board games were:

• lighter games that allowed conversations to happen while playing
• could be learned and played quickly
• could accommodate larger groups of individuals (4+) at a time and even team play
• focus was on use during informal, recreational times and for fun, rather than for use in therapeutic context (such as learning emotion regulation)
• avoided games with themes and/or components that could be sensitive or triggering (e.g., cleaver in Diced Veggies)
• a mix of co-operative and competitive games
• a few games for the youngest children (around 6-8 years of age)

“The games are going wonderfully! They’ve become a great addition to our therapeutic recreation time, and we also encourage families to play them during visits, especially when younger siblings are here.We truly appreciate your generous donation. These games have brought comfort and a sense of normalcy to our patients and their families during a challenging time. They’ve made our unit feel a little more "homey," and for that, we are incredibly grateful.Thank you again for your kindness and support!”

“Wavelength & Uno: Kids were enjoyed this as a large group

Snakes and Ladders & Go Nuts for Donuts: Smaller groups enjoyed this; used it with some of our younger kids

Hues and Cues: Staff used this as a means to teach effective conversation 

Pizza party: Staff played one-on-one with a patient who was not appropriate for the larger group.”