At Primrose Hospice & Family Support Centre, we’re always pushing the boundaries to grow the way we support our community. Today we’re letting you know how we’ve delved into the world of Minecraft!

What is Minecraft, we hear you say? Minecraft is an online game launched in 2011 and is one of the best-selling videogames in history, with up to 140 million monthly active players (Microsoft, 2021).

In our Family Support team, as well as supporting patients, we also support children and families when they know someone with a life-limiting illness or are bereaved. We know many of the people we support are already Minecraft users, so when we learnt that Minecraft can be used therapeutically, we couldn’t wait to learn more. We’ve since received training provided by Ellie Finch who specalises in counselling through video games, such as Minecraft.

Ellie said: “I have found Minecraft can be a fantastic way to engage children and even adults, in counselling. Using Minecraft therapeutically creates a service that is attractive and accessible to users whom traditional services fail to reach. Minecraft is like lego, a sandtray, a place to play and have adventures all rolled in to one popular videogame.”

Jenni, Primrose Hospice’s Children & Young People’s Practitioner Team Lead said: “We find that many of the young people we support struggle to communicate their emotions and they will often want to seek solace in the comfort of their homes playing videogames. However, by integrating Minecraft into our support, we’ve discovered a powerful tool for breaking down these emotional barriers that may stop them from accessing our vital support.”

We’re looking forward to using Minecraft more to support both children and patients in the future, with the aim of allowing them to feel less isolated and alone.

If you would like to find out more about how we support Children and Young people visit this page. 

Or contact us:

T: 01527 889799
E: primrosehospice.familysupportreferrals@nhs.net