This event is part of the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health Seminar Series.

This seminar invites reflection on the role of mental health in shaping work transitions, when viewed in broader biographical and temporal context. Annie Irvine will share findings from a recent UK-based qualitative longitudinal study which explored the factors that influenced movement between work and welfare benefits, for a diverse group of 23 individuals with experience of mental health problems.

This rich qualitative data showed that numerous factors beyond mental health influenced participants’ employment trajectories over time, including adverse childhood and educational experiences, caring roles, partnership formation and dissolution, domestic abuse, and precarity vs security of labour market status at times when mental health affected work capacity. Without ever undermining the veracity of people’s distress, the study demonstrates that employment outcomes cannot be understood through the lens of mental health alone.

At a time when the relationship between mental health and economic (in)activity is rising ever higher on policy and political agendas, this research suggests a need for a more critical and holistic approach to understanding the range of social, economic and relational influences that bring about employment continuity and change for people with experience of mental health problems.

How to join this event

This event will be held online on Zoom.

Please click here to register for your place.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with information about how to join the seminar.

About the Speaker

Annie Irvine is a qualitative researcher with over 20 years' experience of applied social policy research. Her work focuses around the themes of mental health, employment and health and welfare systems, primarily in the UK. Annie seeks to contribute to research that has policy and practice relevance, whilst also exploring conceptual and theoretical aspects of mental health in the social world. Her research aims to deepen understanding of the factors that underpin and influence transitions between work and welfare in the context of mental health, and to explore the complexities and nuances in the ways mental health is understood and talked about in contemporary society. She is a Lecturer in Social Policy and Public Management at the University of York and an affiliate of the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health.