Dr Amber McKenzie

Amber has been part of KMCHR since 2018 as a study coordinator on several projects and has recently completed her PhD studies. She now works on several projects as a post-doctoral researcher at KCMHR. Before joining King’s College London, Amber obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in 2016 in Psychology from Queen Mary, University of London and in 2018 completed her Master of Science degree at King’s College London in Occupational Psychiatry and Psychology at King’s College London.

Amber’s PhD thesis explored adjustment disorder in the UK Armed Forces population. Using a mixed-methods approach, Amber examined what an adjustment disorder looks like for Armed Forces personnel and veterans, identified potential risk factors, and reported on the lived experiences of an adjustment disorder diagnosis for serving personnel.

Amber’s current work focuses on the interactions between health and work including sickness absence for workers from specific groups (e.g., female workers, ethnic minority workers, younger/older workers, and workers with rarer health conditions). She also works collaboratively with Queen’s University (Kingston, Canada) including examining bullying for children and youth from military families and an age-period-cohort analysis for Canadian veterans.

Amber also teaches on the Psychology BSc and Neuroscience and Psychology BSc programme and contributes to the development of undergraduate modules. Her research interests are mostly in occupational mental health, mental health interventions, mental health implications for ethnic minorities and ethnic minorities experiences in the military.

 

Expertise & Public Engagement

Amber has worked collaboratively with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to independently evaluate mental health initiatives developed within their organisation.

 

Key Publications

McKenzie, A., Croak, B., Rafferty, L., Greenberg, N., & Stevelink, S. A. (2021). A Service Evaluation of the Military HeadFIT Initiative: An Implementation Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(14), 7375.

McKenzie, A., Allister, R., Humphrey, D., Moore, K., Greenberg, K., & Greenberg, N. (2020). An evaluation of a veterinary-specific mental health service. Occupational Medicine, 70(3), 169-175.

Greenberg, N., Stevelink, S., Rafferty, L., Greenberg, K. & McKenzie, A. (2020). A case-control study examining the association between service-related mental ill-health and dementia in male military veterans over the age of 65. Available at: https://kcmhr.org/pdf/2020_MIDST_report.pdf.