Peter Irgens' formal education is Reg. Pediatric Nurse and he has a Master’s degree in Public Health. After a few years' work as a nurse, primarilly in child oncology and psychiatry, he became an employee of BRIS in 1988. BRIS ('Children's Rights In Society) is an independant NGO running Sweden's Children's Helpline and using children's voices from the helpline services to advocate for children in Sweden.

Within BRIS, Peter has amongst many tasks been head of BRIS' Region North, responsible for BRIS' data and documentation and today he works as Development & International Coordinator. As such his main areas of responsibility lies in development, evaluation and research primarilly focusing BRIS' support services. His experiences from the international arena includes being one of the authors of the first European Guidelines for Helplines for Children and Young People (2001). He was involved in the building of Child Helpline International (CHI; the global cooperation association for child helplines) and there chaired an international working group on child helplines' data and documentation during CHI's first five years (2003-08). He was also Europe’s representative in the Supervisory Board of CHI during 2008-10.