Tony Robertson

My work focuses on trying to better understand the mechanisms linking our socioeconomic circumstances (e.g. education, employment, housing) and our health across the lifecourse, thereby helping inform policies that can help mitigate, reduce or remove health inequalities. This includes investigating what I call the 'biology of inequality' (the biological pathways between socioeconomic circumstances and health); investigating the prevalence, incidence and predictive power of biomarkers of ageing; and working with community organisations and grassroots activist groups trying to improve population health and reduce health inequalities.

My research interests centre on how to support social workers as well as a strong interest in international social work and tying in the environment/climate change to social work practice and curriculum, also called Green Social Work. Recently I've been looking at the experience of child and family social workers, focusing on the emotions of shame and guilt as well as developing a curriculum to help social workers work with children on the move. I am a member of the Extreme Events research group and my current main project focuses on looking at best practice for community resilience to extreme events in Scotland.