Dr Annie Irvine is a Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of York, and an affiliate of the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health. She joined the Centre for Society and Mental Health in September 2020. Prior to this, she worked for many years in the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the University of York, where her research focused on ill health, disability and employment in the context of UK social security policy.

Annie has a particular interest in mental health as it relates to employment, job retention and return to work. In 2015 she was awarded a PhD by Publication, drawing on her empirical research on the complexities of managing common mental health problems in the workplace.

She has also conducted research on media technology and loneliness, Street Triage collaborations between police officers and mental health professionals, and telephone delivery of psychological therapies within the NHS IAPT programme.

Research

• Mental health and wellbeing
• Work and employment
• Welfare and social security
• Precarity
• Qualitative research methods

Annie uses primarily qualitative research methods, including interviews and conversation analysis, and has contributed to advances in methodological knowledge through the comparative study of telephone and face to face research interviews.

Annie is currently working on qualitative research around the themes of work, welfare reform and mental health.

The research is exploring the relationships between precarious employment and mental health, the impact of conditional welfare benefits on mental health, and lived experiences of precarity.

Further details

See Annie's research profile