Margaret Aimer MBChB, FRANZCP

Margaret Aimer is Ko Awatea’s Development and Delivery Lead. She joined the Ko Awatea team in February 2012, as Head of Health System Improvement, responsible for the management and leadership of the teams working on the 20,000 Days campaign, the national Target CLAB Zero campaign, the community organising project and other system improvement initiatives.

Margaret has over 18 years experience as a consultant psychiatrist and had held the position of Clinical Director for Mental Health Services in Counties Manukau District Health Board (CM Health) from 2004, until her appointment to Ko Awatea. As Clinical Director, Margaret played a significant role in the transformational change and ongoing improvement of Mental Health services within CM Health, leading a number of innovative service developments such as community acute care (alternatives to hospital), home based treatment and Peer Support Specialist services.

She had a key role in the development of a comprehensive “lean” improvement system within the Mental Health service, and in keeping the focus on consumer participation and client/family centered care. Margaret has also provided strong leadership across a number of local, regional and national initiatives such as providing comprehensive service reviews and recommendations for several other District Health Boards’ mental health services and leading the national KPI benchmarking programme.