Journey to Recovery™

4-6 Players

14+ Ages

45-75 minutes

We use a small business based in Madison, WI to print our games on-demand for online orders. Their typical production time ranges anywhere from 4 weeks to 8 weeks. Please keep this in mind when ordering online! If you need a bulk order (6 or more game sets) or a rush order, please contact us to discuss additional options we can offer.

About This Game

Journey to Recovery™ is an educational, cooperative board game designed to expose players to the lived experiences of people with opioid use disorder and simulate interprofessional collaboration in their healthcare. Developed by two pharmacists who specialize in substance use disorder education, research, and practice, Journey to Recovery™ was strategically designed as a teaching and learning tool for health professionals.

Journey to Recovery™ combines evidence-based clinical concepts with interactive gameplay to create an engaging, hands-on learning experience. Players navigate real-world challenges, explore compassionate and person-centered approaches to care, and discover how different health professionals work together to support individuals with opioid use disorder.

How Do You Play?

In Journey to Recovery™, you and your fellow players are members of a health care team. Patient and Provider Heroes must work together to treat the Patient Hero’s opioid addiction, or opioid use disorder.

Illustration of Jake, a health professional student, with text describing his college, part-time job, and fraternity alumni relations role.

Illustration of Fatima, MD, a hijab-wearing physician with a stethoscope, alongside text describing her primary care practice and treatment of Jake’s depression and anxiety.

Illustration of Carlos, a physical therapist wearing glasses, with text describing his former patient Jake’s back injury treatment.

Players must complete a series of evidence-based Care Tasks to help the Patient Hero progress from active opioid use disorder to recovery. Each Care Task is an important step your Hero team must make to support the Patient Hero on their journey to recovery. Stage 1 (Red) Care Tasks represent interventions in active opioid use disorder; Stage 2 (Yellow) Care Tasks represent treatment; and Stage 3 (Green) Care Tasks represent recovery.

Red game screen labeled "Stage 1: Screen for Substance Use," with a "Care Task #1" button and a score of 10.

Red title card reading “Stage 1: Provide Brief Intervention,” with “Care Task #2” and a 15-second timer icon.

Red game-style screen displaying “Stage 1: Refer to Treatment,” “Care Task #3,” and a score of 10.

Orange title card reading “Stage 2: Start a Medication for OUD,” with “Care Task #4” and a 20-point badge.

Orange title card reading “Stage 2: Start Cognitive Behavioral Therapy,” with “Care Task #5” and a 25-point badge.

Orange game-style card reading “Stage 2: Start Physical Therapy,” with a “Care Task #6” button and a 25-point badge.

Green graphic reading “Stage 3: Build Community,” featuring “Care Task #7” and a 30-point lightning icon.

Green graphic labeled “Stage 3: Find Purpose,” featuring Care Task #8 and a 30-point badge.

To complete a Care Task, your team must collectively contribute the required amount of Energy tokens for each task. Pieces of the Patient Hero’s story are revealed as each Care Task is completed.

Red title card reading “Stage 1: Screen for Substance Use,” with a “Care Task #1” button and a 10-point lightning icon.

Screen for substance use: pharmacy technician asks Jake about alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and opioid use before reviewing results privately.

Events occur throughout gameplay that positively or negatively impact your team’s progress and require you to balance spending and conserving your Energy tokens to avoid Burnout. There are more than 70 unique Event cards in the Journey to Recovery™ game!

Event graphic explaining that Jake forgets to fill his escitalopram prescription, loses one heart and one lightning point, and Gabrielle may take two chances to roll a 4 and prevent a negative effect.

Event graphic stating: You receive the “Excellence in Patient Care” award at your institution; Active Hero gains one point.

Event graphic stating that drug test strips are decriminalized in the state, overdose deaths are declining, and test strips detect fentanyl and xylazine.

Event graphic stating that Jake leaves a pharmacy without new syringes after intrusive questions, reuses syringes at home, loses two hearts, and removes three lightning bolts from the care task.

Players WIN the game when all eight Care Tasks are completed and the Patient Hero has successfully achieved recovery. Players LOSE the game if at any point throughout gameplay the Patient Hero’s Wellness Tracker hits zero. Success requires communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and an appreciation for the unique contributions of each Patient and Provider Hero on your team.

Why Should You Use This Game?

The average attention span for young adults and older adults is only around 70 seconds (Simon et. al., 2023). It can be challenging to sustain learners’ attention and continued engagement with traditional didactic lectures, and lectures are often not the best formats to encourage questions and discussions about potentially sensitive topics like harm reduction and substance use disorders. Journey to Recovery™ offers educators an engaging and interactive way to introduce these complex and nuanced topics while encouraging active participation, teamwork, and meaningful discussion.

The Journey to Recovery™ game is specifically designed to help learners:

Explore evidence-based recommendations from national guidelines such as SAMHSA’s TIP 63: Medications for Opioid Use Disorder
Build empathy and reduce stigma through real-world examples of lived experiences
Meet IPEC Core Competencies, including values and ethics for interprofessional practice, roles and responsibilities, interprofessional communication, and teams and teamwork
Enhance critical thinking, collaboration, and learning retention

Buy Now for $120 Using Stripe

Journey to Recovery™ has been pilot-tested as a teaching and learning tool with health professional students at Purdue University, the University of Arizona, the University of Texas at Austin, and more! You can read more about the results from pilot testing and our latest research on our Scholarship page.

Learn More