Alison Osborne

Alison is a Senior Research Assistant in the Northern Hub for Veterans and Military Families Research at Northumbria University. Her research focusses on the life experiences of military families with specific interests in well-being, family separation and identity. 

Recently, Alison completed a PhD exploring the psycho-social impact of intermittent separation on geographically dispersed military families. This was a mixed methods project utilising a systematic narrative review, geospatial analysis, and semi-structured interviews with dispersed military family members.

Additionally, Alison has undertaken international research in Denmark looking at the mental well-being of Danish Military Children. Working closely with the Danish military charity SSOP, a 4-year project is now underway to explore the impact of SSOP’s interventions on the well-being of military children.

The primary project Alison is currently engaged in is the Map of Need. Funded by the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust, Alison leads on the military families research, veterans’ mental health pathways report and Veterans’ Gateway user experience research. 

Since joining the Northern Hub in 2016, Alison has been involved in a number of projects, including research on veterans’ reluctance to access help for alcohol problems, the health and social well-being of older veterans with limb-loss and military families’ experience of casualty notification.

Before working in the Northern Hub, Alison completed a BSc (Hons) in Psychology and MRes in Psychology at Northumbria University.