The new service, which will be free to join for the next 12 months, is a joint venture between the NHS Confederation Mental Health Network and Janssen.

The new social networking site will give GP commissioners access to the most up to date policy information, help them share best practice, provide the latest evidence-based approaches and offer opportunities to learn from current commissioners of mental health services.

Those joining up will also be offered the chance to meet face to face at regional meetings and explore how to go about service change.

Accompanying the launch of the network is a fact sheet setting out the size of the challenge new GP commissioners face as they take responsibility for mental health services.

The proportion of the English population who can be defined as having one common mental disorder has increased from 15.5 per cent in 1993 to 17.6 per cent in 2007.

At the same time, more services than ever before are being offered in the community yet more people need support with getting back into work, housing and financial advice.

Mental ill health is both one of the most common forms of illness and will be one of the biggest spending items for GP commissioners.  This fact sheet is meant as a useful starting point for new GP commissioners to understand the nature of illness in England.

Other key trends in mental health:

• More than half of those with a common mental disorder presented with mixed anxiety and depressive disorder (9 per cent)
• Women were more likely than men to have a common mental disorder (19.7 per cent and 12.5 per cent respectively)
• The largest increase in rate of common mental disorders between 1993 and 2007 was observed in women aged 45–64, among whom the rate rose by about a fifth
• Rates of common mental disorders varied by age: those aged 75 and over were the least likely to have a disorder (6.3 per cent of men, 12.2 per cent of women)
• A quarter (24 per cent) of people with a common mental disorder were receiving treatment for an emotional or mental problem, mostly in the form of medication.

Steve Shrubb, NHS Confederation Mental Health Network Director, said: “About one in six people has some form of mental illness and GPs already recognise that mental illness is one of the most common illnesses people come to them with.”

“By putting GPs in charge of commissioning budgets there are huge opportunities to get better at intervening early and making sure people get access to the most appropriate care.  There is, however, a great deal of unease about how ready GPs are to take over the commissioning of mental health services.”

"This fact sheet will launch a whole programme of work that the Mental Health Network will be undertaking with Janssen to help GP commissioners assume their new responsibilities in mental health."

Isabel Laas, Business Unit Director at Janssen, said: “The transition of mental health commissioning to primary care will raise questions and challenges for the effective delivery of care to patients.  This partnership is a fantastic opportunity to help GPs optimise the way in which people affected by mental illness are managed by the NHS.”