Mental health services are “straining at the seams” to cope with the growing number of people with mental illnesses, according to a report published on Monday. As well as the immense distress caused to the millions of people with mental ill-health and their families, mental disorders cost the economy more than £100bn a year, according to calculations by the Mental Health Foundation. And unless the prevalence of mental illness falls, 2 million more adults and 100,000 more children will need treatment in 2030 compared with the figures for this year.

The report is published as Professor Dinesh Bhugra, the former president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, warns in an article in Society Guardian this week that mental health units run by both the NHS and independent sector providers have begun to run out of beds.

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