Chiara Ripamonti

University of Milano Bicocca

Chiara Ripamonti

University of Milano Bicocca

Biography

Specialized in Clinical Psychology, Researcher and Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology of the University of Milan Bicocca. She teaches the courses of Health Psychology and Clinical Interventions in Health and of Communication and social interactions in Health Services within the post-graduate degree courses in Clinical Psychology and in Life Cycle Neuropsychology. She graduated in Philosophy at the University of Milan and in Analytical Psychology of children and teenagers at the Zurich Jung Institut.

In recent years, she has been particularly interested in pediatric psycho-oncology. She is also engaged in Private Practice as a psychotherapist in Milan.
She is a lecturer and supervisor of several public and private psychotherapy schools. She carries out training activities in health and education.

She has been involved for a long time in the study of communication and social interactions between the child / adolescent, his family and the health staff. This interest led her to deepen the theme of the use of Apps and serious games in the health sector. She is the author of many publications in the field of clinical psychology and health psychology. She is the President of the Italian Sand Play Therapy Association. She is President and Founding Member of Psyché, a no profit organization that promotes the psychological well-being and the prevention of psychological distress within the family, school and hospital.

PRESENTATION

AMICO H a 360° support for children with leukemia and their families
Amico H (Friend H) is an integrated system that combines the approach of serious game and gamification to guide children with leukemia and their families in the therapeutic path. The project stems from the need to explain gradually and with a language understandable to children both what happens to the body of the young patient as a consequence of the disease and the therapeutic actions to be taken so that the treatment can be more bearable.

Leukemia is explained to the young patient as a spell that transforms the little prince of the castle of Mentada into a dragon. This spell can be countered by the magician with an alchemical potion prepared with extracts from his garden’s magical plants.
The objective of the game is to help the magician to get all the necessary ingredients for the preparation of the magic potion.

The young patient should carry out the activities of the gamification system exploring the castle and earning coins to buy what is needed to grow the magic plants.
When all the plants’ extracts are available the wizard will free the young prince from the spell.

From a psychological point of view, the app responds to a series of fundamental requirements to facilitate the acquisition of information concerning the disease and the hospitalization and the re-elaboration of potentially traumatic experiences.
This has positive repercussions on the ability to adapt, on adherence, and on the quality of the relationships among the child, the healthcare staff and family members.