D&D + Metal Health Treatment = Healing

Over 30 years ago, when I was in Grade School, I posed a simple question to my teachers... "Why don't you use Dungeons & Dragons to teach us?" ... I was promptly laughed at by both my peers and my teachers.
Many years later, while in High School, I posed the same question, albeit more articulately. Yet again, I was chastised and made fun of... 1 teacher even going so far as to call me "stupid" and instructing me to never ask such a "retarded" question again, his words, not mine.
I never understood why (what we now refer to as) gamification and just games for that matter, were not more widely utilized as a medium for formal education and similar tangential functions.
At it's bare minimum, D&D teaches core math skills, at it's best it teaches incredibly complex problem solving, critical thinking, discreet mathematics, computational thinking, advanced social skills... The list is literally damn near infinite.
I understood this fact from a very early age. I understood the utilitarian value and power that games can have in virtually every facet of life.
When I do JA talks, I say that games are more than entertainment, they are a powerful medium for anything from history to social engineering for good and everything in-between.
Luckily, gamification has begun to seep into the mainstream and as a result, we are starting to see it flow into the educational-industrial complex as well... unfortunately, not nearly at the rate it needs to....
But, I digress with some of this, its not the main reason I bring any of this up. I bring this up because as I was lying in bed, unable to sleep, I began scrolling through my news feed and I came across THIS Article, which discusses how TTRPG's are now being used, in ernest, to treat mental health issues.
There was some interesting research about 15 years ago into using 3d games, specifically first person games, as a treatment for alzheimer's and some other cognitive disorders, but to my knowledge, the research ultimately failed to deliver the desired results. Further, first person shooters, specifically ARMA and other "purpose built" games have been used to treat PTSD in returning vets.
But this, this is something new.
It's a new application, or evolution if you will, of what I suggested all the way back when I was in Grade School and that I continue to preach to this very day.
I guess I'm just glad that others who have more credibility, power, influence, standing or whatever the fuck you want to call it, are waking up the the power and importance that games provide and the reality that I so clearly understood all those years ago.