Maimoona Baig

My name is Maimoona and I am a Children’s Wellbeing Practitioner (CWP).  I am currently situated in a Children & Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) based in Kent.

I work for the North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT) who provide child and adolescent mental health services across Kent and Medway – as well as North East London.

My day usually starts with admininstration and this means shifting through emails whilst catching up with colleagues about their week.  This helps start my day in a positive way!  Throughout the day, I’ll have appointments with clients either online or face to face and I fit in time to have lunch.

One thing I love about my job is being able to manage my own time with 1-to-1 appointments and delivering group workshops.  It gives me control on how I carry out tasks and means that I can put 100% effort into any task I do.

My career journey into mental health started once I completed an undergraduate degree in Psychology with Education and wanted to attain a qualification which allows me to work in the mental health sector, so I applied for the Children’s Wellbeing Practitioner training course.

One thing I like about working for NELFT is that they give me opportunities to develop my skills through my clinical work and becoming an Ambassador.  Moreover, the team I work with is very supportive and welcoming of all staff members which is a big plus.

One piece of advice I would give to someone considering a job in this sector is to get some work experience around working with children who struggle with mental health problems. This will give you invaluable experience and a taster of what your career will be like. Also, if you like the work, it will make you a valuable candidate when applying for the training position such as the Trainee Children’s Wellbeing Practitioner as you can develop various transferable skills which are valuable to this role.

This role is not just about seeing and talking to young people who are anxious and depressed, your role is to guide them.   As a CWP, you are taught to deliver support using a manual which is structured and easy to follow.  Therefore, over a period of 8 weeks, you are discussing ways to help young people cope with their anxious feelings or low mood.  At the end of 8 week intervention, you will evidently see this from the young person’s response.