Richard is a registered nurse, credentialed mental health nurse and is a fellow of the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses (since 2001). He has worked as a senior lecturer in mental health in New Zealand, Australia and Ireland. He is currently an Associate Professor at Southern Cross University. He was awarded a Doctorate of Nursing Science by James Cook in 2009 with a thesis that included a portfolio of work on suicide, mental health recovery, ethics and service user participation in mental health care. He received further postgraduate degrees (a BA Hons and Bachelor of Nursing at Massey University in New Zealand). Formal Training in psychotherapy included a Masters in Mental Health (psychotherapy) from the University of Queensland and considerable study in short courses including in Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT). He has practised as a private practitioner, largely under what was known as the Mental Health Nurse Incentive Programme and what was formerly known in Australia as ATAPs. He has also worked in acute mental health and community settings (in intensive outreach, homeless services, emergency departments) and most recently in youth mental health.

Richard has a diverse research and publication portfolio with 120+ publications in highly regarded mental health related journals a dozen book chapters and he has been a sought after keynote speaker at mental health and recovery focused conferences. Access to a more detailed publication list on-line teaching and learning resources may be found at Richard's website. Richard's work has been widely cited and in some interesting places including practice guidelines, and books such as Agnes's Jacket. He has long been a vocal advocate of recovery focused practice, critical of the medical orthodox approach to mental distress (whilst working within the system), and has sought to understand how to respond best to suicide and the most complex of human problems.