In recent years there has been much debate about the alarming rise in rates of mental health problems.

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Was this a case of people being “overdiagnosed” and “written off”, as former Health Secretary Wes Streeting suggested? Or was it evidence of a “snowflake generation” gaming the system, as some unsympathetic commentators have argued?

Those theories should be firmly put to bed by the publication of the government’s independent review into the prevalence of mental health conditions. It shows clearly what those of us who work in mental health have long suspected - that the rise in mental health conditions is real, and that we need an urgent focus across society on tackling it.

The review shows that the prevalence of common mental disorders such as anxiety and depression among adults in England has risen from around 15% in the early 1990s, to around 23% by the mid-2020s, with the clearest increases observed among young adults.

But the mental health system has failed to keep pace. That is contributing to an entirely unacceptable situation in which some people have to wait nearly two years to get mental health treatment, and often face traumatic experiences like........

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