We've only just begun - Action to improve young people’s mental health, education and employment

This report is the culmination of a three-year research programme exploring the relationship between the mental health and work outcomes of young people, funded by the Health Foundation and part of their broader Young people’s future health inquiry. [...] Further education colleges need more investment to help those at the sharpest end of the youth mental health crisis The rising prevalence of mental health problems among the under-18s demands first and foremost a health response: reducing the number of young people entering adulthood Resolution Foundation We've only just begun | Executive Summary 10 with a mental health problem must be the number. [...] But failing to act in the face of the youth mental health crisis can only bring further costs in the future: to the state (in the form of benefits and foregone taxes); to employers (who miss out on potential workers and risk higher absenteeism); and most importantly, to all the young people whose future living standards are currently compromised by their poor mental health. [...] In Section 2, we showed the rates of mental health problems among young people in and out of work, and in Figure 8 we analyse that relationship the other way around to show that young people with mental health problems are more likely to be workless than their healthy peers. [...] First, educational outcomes shape young people’s career and life trajectories.49 And second, mental health problems often begin in childhood with around half of mental health problems arising before the age of 14 (and three-quarters before the age of 24).50 So, how do mental health and education interact during the school and college years?51 Mental health problems are blighting young people’s edu.