ANYONE with a mental health problem will be able to get immediate help at a new multi-million pound health centre set to open in Worcester.

The £2.25m state-of-the-art Worcester Mental Health Resource Centre, being built in City Walls Road, is due to be completed by August and will open its doors to patients in September.

The three-story building will incorporate all the city's mental health services under one roof.

The centre will treat more than 300 patients every week - 85 per cent of the city's mental health sufferers, including people with "serious" conditions such as schizophrenia. It will relieve pressure on Newtown Hospital, in Ronkswood, which was last month criticised by one Worcester couple, whose son is an in-patient, as cramped and run down.

Hugh Thomas, county mental health services locality manager, is overseeing the project, which is the result of a partnership between Worcestershire Social Services and Worcestershire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust.

"The centre will provide any service or treatment that doesn't require a patient staying overnight," he said. "You can turn up and say: 'Can I see the duty worker because I think my child is suffering a mental illness. What should I do?'

"If someone is seeing a social worker and has a question about their medication, someone on site can deal with the problem. It will speed everything up and save on reams of paper work."

The building will house a day hospital, support officers, counsellors for patients with drug or alcohol problems, a post-natal depression unit and art workshops.