THE DIFFERENCE MAKERS
THE DIFFERENCE MAKERS Introducing the people behind Marylebone’s vital charities and community organisations: Ayla Mammadova, clinical lead for the Mind in Brent, Wandsworth & Westminster charity’s mental health support team Interview: Jean-Paul Aubin-Parvu Portraits: Orlando Gili
29 — MARYLEBONE JOURNAL / ISSUE NO. 93
I’m what’s known as a ‘third culture kid’ – somebody who’s born in one country, grows up somewhere else, and then lives in a completely different place. That was me. I was born in Azerbaijan but grew up in the Middle East, and then lived in the United States. Now I’m here in London. Because of this, I have always been fascinated by people’s individual differences – by what it is that makes us us. My biggest interest is in trying to help children and young people get through the massive changes they experience in life. I have been in this profession for many years, starting off at an adolescent inpatient psychiatric unit, then in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and also in forensics. I joined Mind in Brent, Wandsworth & Westminster as a clinical supervisor in January 2020, and became clinical lead in August 2021. Our team works across 33 schools in Westminster, some of which are in Marylebone – I lived there for nine years, so I know the area very well. Our CEO, Simon Thompson, is passionate about ensuring that everybody gets the care they need. The Mental Health Support team was set up by the service manager Nada Calovska in response to the green paper that came out a couple of years ago saying that children and adolescent mental health services are failing. We shouldn’t be waiting for a crisis to develop before we offer help to young people. We should be helping them at the start, at the early intervention stage. That’s what we try to do.
