Young people ‘feel they have nothing to live for’
A study for the Prince’s Trust suggests that as many as three quarters of a million young people in the UK may feel that they have nothing to live for, and that almost a third of long-term unemployed have thought about taking their own lives.
This is from a report by Katherine Sellgen:
The Prince’s Trust Macquarie Youth Index was based on interviews with 2,161 16 to 25-year-olds. Of these, 281 were classified as Neet (not in employment, education or training) and 166 of these Neets had been unemployed for over six months.
The report found 9% of all respondents agreed with the statement: “I have nothing to live for” and said if 9% of all youngsters felt the same, it would equate to some 751,230 young people feeling they had nothing to live for.
Among those respondents classified as Neet, the percentage of those agreeing with the statement rose to 21%.
The research found that long-term unemployed young people were more than twice as likely as their peers to have been prescribed anti-depressants.
One in three (32%) had contemplated suicide, while one in four (24%) had self-harmed.
The report found 40% of jobless young people had faced symptoms of mental illness, including suicidal thoughts, feelings of self-loathing and panic attacks, as a direct result of unemployment.
Three quarters of long-term unemployed young people (72%) did not have someone to confide in, the study found.
Martina Milburn, chief executive of the Prince’s Trust, said: “Unemployment is proven to cause devastating, long-lasting mental health problems among young people.
“Thousands wake up every day believing that life isn’t worth living, after struggling for years in the dole queue.
“More than 440,000 young people are facing long-term unemployment, and it is these young people that urgently need our help.
“If we fail to act, there is a real danger that these young people will become hopeless, as well as jobless.”
Tags: depression, hope, self-harm, suicide, unemployment, young people
‘Three quarters of long-term unemployed young people (72%) did not have someone to confide in, the study found.’
They did have ~ they just never knew about it ~ because they were not privileged enough to maybe know that there is a Church Community out there that cares . . . . Or is there?
How can we reach out to the secular youth, who don’t see us and aren’t reached? We are great for churched families, but do we really reach into society beyond the absolutely marginalised or children of Catholics? I am not sure we do ~ it’s the same problem as we face in any school, the brightest bunnies are catered for, the struggling are catered for, but the general mainstream slip through the net unnoticed. Maybe. Probably.
Maybe we should be evangelising secular/non denominational schools