Almost one-in-four young people in Yorkshire have experienced symptoms of mental illness, including panic attacks and suicidal thoughts, as a direct result of unemployment, warns a new report.

The Prince’s Trust Macquarie Youth Index warns that young women from the region are significantly more likely to be affected by these mental health problems than young men.

It also finds that young people who are long-term unemployed (over six months) are more than twice as likely as their peers to believe they have nothing to live for.

The report, from Prince Charles’s charity, comes at a time when the region has seen a 330 per cent increase in the number of young people claiming benefits for more than six months since the beginning of the recession.

In a poll of young people, almost one-in-four (23 per cent) said unemployment had led them to experience at least one of the following – suicidal thoughts, self-harm, panic attacks, being prescribed anti-depressants, feelings of self-loathing, insomnia, feeling inferior to others, difficulty controlling anger, drinking large amounts of alcohol and taking drugs.

More than one-in-ten young people in the region (14 per cent) believe life is not worth living, with the national average nine per cent, and 40 per cent of those from the region said they ‘always’ or ‘often’ felt down or depressed (national average 32 per cent) with the report showing that long-term unemployed people are significantly more likely to feel this way.

The Prince’s Trust, which tackles youth unemployment and last year worked with 4,717 disadvantaged young people across the region, is now calling for urgent support from the Government, health agencies and employers.

The youth charity wants help with funding for its work with long-term unemployed young people battling mental health issues, so it can help them build self-esteem and move into work.

Jonathan Townsend, Northern regional director, 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. Here in the Yorkshire and the Humber, 14,580 young people are facing long-term unemployment and there is a real danger that these young people will become hopeless, as well as jobless.

“Our research highlights that unemployed young people are significantly less likely to ask for help if struggling to cope.”

The charity’s Youth Index polled 2,161 16-to-25-year-olds, gauging wellbeing across a range of areas from family life to physical health.

David Fass, chief executive of Macquarie Group EMEA, said: “Macquarie invests in young people. We think it’s important to identify the key issues they face today so policy and programmes aimed at addressing them can be developed. The Index enables organisations like the Prince’s Trust to offer disadvantaged young people the guidance they need to build a stronger future and Macquarie hopes these findings will help further target the support available.”

Shirley Cramer, chief executive of the Royal Society for Public Health, said: “This research proves that unemployment is a public health issue. It is one that must be tackled urgently and it is essential that youth unemployment is added to the public health agenda. Unemployed young people are struggling in many aspects of their lives, from their mental health and wellbeing to their relationships and qualifications and we must act quickly to end this.”

In response to the new findings, The Prince’s Trust is increasing support for vulnerable young people through its Get Started programme, aimed at inspiring and motivating the long-term unemployed. Courses are run with partners such as the Premier League, the Professional Footballers’ Association, online retailer ASOS and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

Three in four young people supported by the Prince’s Trust move into work, education or training.

Success stories in Bradford include Steven Frayne, alias urban magician Dynamo, who grew up on Bradford’s Delph Hill estate and received £2,000 from the charity to make a DVD promoting his talents as a magician. He is now an ambassador for the charity.

Ten young people recently spent time at Bradford-based Yorkshire Water, construction group Balfour Beatty and utility services provider Morrison through a four-week work experience scheme run by The Prince’s Trust and three leading companies.

Yorkshire Water’s community engagement manager John Bond said there had been positive feedback from those involved.

“This recent scheme is part of a much wider programme which sees us working with local secondary schools, providing work experience, opening our education centres to more than 5,000 schoolchildren and speaking to almost 2,000 primary school children and teachers through outreach programmes each year,” he added.

For more about The Prince’s Trust, visit www.princes-trust.org.uk.