MHT Recovery Hub hosts resources for inpatient behavioral healthcare.

Why games?

Games create structure. They provide focus. Once familiar, they comfort. They provide social skills practice: self-disclosure, cooperation toward a goal, assertiveness, sportsmanship, waiting your turn. A game can turn an overstimulating, unstructured, anxious, difficult to redirect room into a fun, chill space. Small groups use games to reduce vulnerability to overstimulation. Games build life skills, coping skills, mindfulness, and interpersonal effectiveness.

Whiteboard or marker and paper games

• Draft for making booklets: pdf or docx.
• Sprouts (2 players)
• Dots and boxes (2 players)
• Connect 6 (2 players)
• Battleship (print and play)(2 players)

Group games

• Eat Poop You Cat (3-13 players)
• Daisy (hangman) (2-17 players)
• Wordle
• Mafia or werewolf (6+ players)
• ?Dictionary, ?Charades, or Pictionary (4+ players)
• Family Feud, Jeopardy, or basic trivia
• Your worst nightmare
• Pants game
• Carrot in a box

Card games

• Draft for making booklets: pdf and docx.
• 4 card Golf (2-8+ players) or 6 card Golf (2-4 players) - layout games, low score wins
• Basic or straight Rummy (2-4+ players) or Uno (2-10 players) - score points for cards left in your opponents' hands
• Oh Hell (3-7 players) - bidding, trick-taking game with trump suit
• Skull and Roses (3-12 players) - bluffing game
• Ringmaster ($10) (3-4 players)
• Love letter ($12 or print and play) (2-6 players)
• Spot it! ($10) (2-8 players)

Solo activities

• Word search and solo activity booklet
• Origami book

Toy/board games

• Pig jacks ($7) (1+ players)
• Hive ($30) (2 players)
• Nine men's morris (print and play) (2 players)