Biography and expertise
Biography
Richard has worked in the mental health field as a psychotherapist, clinician, researcher, manager, educator and academic in Ireland, New Zealand and Australia. He originally trained as a nurse and later as a psychotherapist and family therapist. He has primarily worked with people with complex psychosocial needs as a senior clinician and psychotherapist in acute care and in community settings. He has founded and managed assertive community treatment teams, and worked extensively in the homeless sector and in acute care teams. As a clinical supervisor and psychotherapist, Richard works in private practice as a consultant on mental health matters, including psychotherapeutic programme development and educational design. Richard has been on the editorial board on several high ranking journals including the International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, the Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing and the British Journal of Wellbeing.
Richard's work contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals
Research
Richard has a diverse portfolio of research interests. Projects have included how people deal with trauma, mental health programme evaluation, mental health recovery, stigma and discrimination, how people recover from suicidal crises, cope with extraordinary experiences such as hearing voices, how professionals cope with vicarious trauma, and professional competency in psychotherapy and mental health nursing practice.
Teaching
Richard has a complex portfolio of teaching. He formerly developed and co-ordinated the SCU online postgraduate mental health programmes and taught extensively in undergraduate programmes on mental health, medical sociology, research, ethics, psychopharmacology and psychotherapy. He has developed and taught courses on complex care and case management to homeless sector workers, provided innovative training to peer support organisations (e.g. GROW) and to a wide variety of health professionals and social care workers.
Other
Richard is a Fellow of the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses, Credentialled Mental Health Nurse, Clinical Member of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia and Member of the Australian Family Therapy Association.