We're a depressed lot in Britain - more than twice as depressed as we were five years ago, according to a jolly-sounding organisation called the National Depression Campaign.

And one of the main triggers of this very real and debilitating illness is worry over finances.

More than 88 per cent of the people surveyed for a report this week cited financial anxieties as the cause of their clinical gloom and despondency. It's obviously a huge problem.

But if more people were able to be helped to find a path through the problems which seem to be hemming them in, it would surely help to reduce the estimated £8 billion a year that depression costs the nation through medical care, lost production and social security bills.

Which is as good a cue as any for a plug on behalf of the Citizens' Advice Bureau in Canal Road, Bradford, which needs a lot more volunteers to help it to meet the increasing demand for its services. This is the CAB Service's 60th anniversary (it started in 1939 to help people affected by the Second World War), and to mark the occasion the Bradford branch is hoping to recruit 60 new volunteers.

I was invited along there the other day to meet Allison Spence, the volunteer support worker, and volunteer Brian Hodgson.

The waiting room they led me through was busy with waiting clients. It always is these days. The morning sessions can last until three in the afternoon because there simply aren't enough advisers to cope with the workload. But people are prepared to wait because, often, they have nowhere else to turn for the advice they hope will get them out of the mess they're in.

Last year the Bradford CAB dealt with 39,000 inquiries - via the telephone, personally at the office, at the various outreach sessions in nurseries, churches and community centres throughout the district, in the homes of the housebound. That was 9,000 up on the previous year.

The majority of problems are connected with finance: debt, benefits, house possession, eviction. But the bureau also gives advice on employment issues, legal matters, consumer problems, immigration, noisy neighbours....You name it and the CAB can find the relevant advice in its 10,000-page information system, which is updated every month.

"We try to help people to sort out their own problems rather than take them over," says Allison. "We never look down on any client, never judge. We're just here to help them."

Brian, who has found his management experience in industry extremely useful in dealing with people and their problems, says: "It can be very rewarding. Some people are in very serious debt. They feel themselves going to pieces. It affects their family life.

"If you can show them a way out of it, lift them up, the relief on their faces makes the work well worth it."

So how can you help out, you people who have a day or so a week to spare and want to do something socially useful with the time?

If you decide you'd like to help the CAB as a volunteer, don't worry that you'll need a lot of specialist knowledge. No previous qualifications are needed. It's more important that you're open-minded and enthusiastic - and, of course, are interested in people.

After an interview to make sure that your motives are sound, you'll be given all the training you need. It could be for advice work, from face-to-face interviewing to representing clients in court. Or perhaps you'd prefer admin, interpreting or reception work.

There's something for everyone, whatever their race, social background, sexual orientation or age. Minimum age is 18 but there is no maximum, with retired or early-retired people welcome because of their experience and the long-term commitment they can often offer. There's also a need for people with Asian language skills to act as advisers or interpreters.

So there you have it. To find out more, ring Allison Spence on Bradford 390170, or write to her at Bradford CAB, 17 Canal Road, Bradford BD1 4AT.

We live in a world which seems to be growing more complicated by the day. None of us know when we might need a friendly hand to hold to help us to find our way through it and steer us away from becoming a new statistic in next year's report from the National Depression Campaign.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.