Why is mental health low among UK youth?

Dude Swheatie of Kwug reports:

Labour's former 'happiness guru' Professor Lord Richard Layard told the Independent almost two years ago that money is not the only thing affecting people's happiness.(1) It did not surprise me that he had said that. When I asked him at a Guardian and Trade Union Council conference workshop on economic fairness in 2008 about the link between income and mental health for family-based carers who contributed more to the UK economy than the NHS budget at huge cost to their own well-being, he thought the link was irrelevant.(2)

Nowadays, a much more widespread and headline-grabbing mental health problem is the low mental health of UK youth. The low mental health of UK youth is due to a cocktail of causes, Revd Paul Nicolson of Taxpayers Against Poverty argues in an article headed The canaries on the shelves in Whitehall have stopped singing, but Whitehall ignores the silence.(3) I wonder whether the 'austerity budgets' have led to a 'fire sale' of Whitehall's book shelves?

Re the low job prospects for youth throughout Europe, see statistical geographer Danny Dorling's New Statesman article Generation Jobless: The worst youth unemployment crisis in European history should be blamed on its millionaires.(4)

Link

1. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/richard-layard-money-is-not-the-only-thing-affecting-people-s-happiness-9603424.html
2. This is a problem that has intensified rather than diminished since I asked panel member Richard Layard that question, and the Guardian Economics Editor who was chairing that session appeared to delight the Labour East Midlands MEP who also seemed to find the question irrelevant or too embarrassing. See, eg, http://www.carersuk.org/news-and-campaigns/press-releases/more-than-half-of-carers-report-bleak-outlook-for-2016-as-new-law-not-yet-delivering-promised-improvements-to-their-lives
3. http://www.taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/canaries-on-the-shelves-in-the-deep-mines-of-whitehall-have-stopped-singing-but-ministers-ignore-the-silence/ 
4. http://www.newstatesman.com/economics/2013/08/generation-jobless-worst-youth-unemployment-crisis-european-history-should-be-blam