ONE in six adults at any one time has a mental health problem - as many as nine million are affected in the UK today.

The problems range in severity from mild depression and stress to far more serious conditions such as schizophrenia - but one thing all sufferers have in common is the need to feel they are not alone.

We are dismayed, then, by the news that Worcester's popular Trinity Club has been forced to close.

The club, based in City Walls Road, had been running for 15 years, providing invaluable help for people with mental health problems in the city.

It offered them a place to go, play games, talk about their problems and meet others with similar difficulties.

Why has it shut? Because county social services department bosses have failed to find a replacement for the club's manager on her retirement - even though she gave them 12 months' notice.

That's a full year to find one person. And they couldn't manage it.

Was this down to sheer incompetence or negligence? Either way, it certainly does not reflect at all well on the social services department.

Now, some of the club's 30 members may have to be readmitted to hospital or try to find somewhere else where they can find the sort of support they need to function in our society.

This situation is simply not good enough.