Adj Lesley Robertson

Lesley Robertson is a South African academic and clinician–researcher whose work centres on strengthening public mental health systems, particularly within primary care and district services. Affiliated with institutions in Gauteng, her scholarship engages closely with policy, service integration, and equitable access to care, contributing to national discussions on mental health reform and community-based psychiatry.

Her research focuses on integrating mental health into primary health care, community-based collaborative care for serious mental illness, and continuity of care in low- and middle-income settings. Through mixed-methods studies, qualitative syntheses, and pharmacoepidemiological analyses, she examines service user and provider experiences, workforce burnout, task shifting, and medicine procurement as proxies for system performance.

Robertson’s publications highlight gaps in coordination, resource allocation, and training, while offering pragmatic strategies to improve district-level services and supported housing. By linking frontline experiences with system-level data, her work advances evidence-informed policy and promotes person-centred, community-oriented mental healthcare in South Africa and comparable contexts.