The Chartered Accountants' Benevolent Association (CABA) has warned of a 'substantial' increase in demand for emotional wellbeing support over the past year.

The charity reports a 170% increase in the number of people asking for help, up from 45 previously to 122 in the last 12 months. In response, it has created a course called 'Beating the Blues' which has so far been taken by 51 people. This is a free online course of eight weekly sessions designed to help people understand anxiety and stress, change negative thought patterns and learn about ways to better manage the issues.

Suhel Bhula, CABA's advice and information officer at CABA, said it was hard to pinpoint exactly what was behind the increase in mental health concerns, although the current economic climate had produced an increase in work-related issues such as stress, redundancy and excessive workload.

'We suspect, although this is a very difficult thing to measure, that one of the key factors is that it is simply becoming more acceptable both generally and within the profession for people to call us and say, "I'm not coping very well. Can you help?"' Bhula said.

Last month Deloitte announced it had appointed John Binns as its new mental health and personal resilience advisor.

The firm said Binns, a former senior consulting partner and Mental Health Champion at Deloitte, will focus on increasing his one-to-one advice service for individuals in the firm who want to speak about mental health issues affecting them or their family.

He will also provide mental health awareness and advisory services to other businesses across London and nationally.

Stevan Rolls, head of HR at Deloitte, said: 'We recognise that one in four people will suffer from a mental health issue at some point in their career. John's appointment underlines Deloitte's commitment to being a leader in the field of mental health awareness in the workplace and the importance of this service to our employees.'