You may have seen recently in the headlines the astonishing number of people who are unable to work due to mental health problems at a cost to the UK economy of several billion. More concerningly there is a significant number of young people within this group. For those young adults who have never worked the odds are against them for entering the workforce at all during their working life. It doesn’t take an economist to work out that this is not good news for the future economy and a return to growth.
There is a very interesting study that seems to often get lost amongst this. A study by Goodman et al looked at unique prospective data from the British National Child Development Study and found that the impact of psychological problems had a far greater impact on adulthood than physical problems, including life-long learning ability as well as other factors. They found that, as an example, a 23 year old entering the British labour market in 2008 would expect an average lifetime net family income loss of £388,000.* That’s a lot of money that could be saved by simply investing in effective therapies for children and adolescents to reduce the lifetime burden of mental illness in childhood.
BUT we are not here to discuss politics or continue to add to the rather dreary pessimistic outlook portrayed by media. What I wanted to share with you is that last month we spent a day in a room with other charities that are committed to improving the wellbeing of young people in innovative ways such as through nature, gardening, non contact boxing, surfing and art. The energy and determination in the room to make a positive difference was palpable. All of this was enabled by Chimo Trust – a fantastic trust that aims to bring its business expertise (I have it tell you it’s a good job I didn’t know how much business knowledge is required to run a charity before I started GRIT) and funding to support charities like GRIT in expanding to support more and more young people. I’m also heartened by the timing of this news – I think it’s a good thing. What it means is that it is more than just ‘the right thing’ to do in supporting young people. It also matters for our future, the economy and in creating a world everyone is valued. Maybe this will be the time that this area finally gets the funding to support the resources it needs.
Dr Louise Randall
Source: The Long Shadow cast by childhood physical and mental problems on adult life Goodman et al PNAS March 28 1011 108