He has worked at the McMaster University Medical Centre and the Social Planning and Research Council of Hamilton. Later, at the Addiction Research Foundation (now the Centre on Addiction and Mental Health), he provided crisis counselling, conducted school education, and assisted community groups and workplaces in developing health promotion and Employee Assistance Programs. He also assisted in the development of the Addiction Studies Program at McMaster University, where he has taught since 1987 and has acted as a consultant to the Canadian Department of National Defence, Ontario Ministry of Correctional Services, Canadian Revenue Agency, Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse and Children’s Aid Society of London and Middlesex.

Rick has been on the King's University College Honor Role of  teaching ten consecutive times, is past recipient of the McMaster University Instructor Appreciation award, has authored over 100 peer reviewed articles and book chapters and has been an invited presenter to over 150 national and international conferences and workshops.  He is the author of Introduction to Substance Use and Abuse: Theory and Practice Practicing Social Work Research: Case Studies for Learning ( (2010) with Rachel Birnbaum and Barbara Decker Pierce) and editor of Wellness and Work: Employee Assistance Programming in Canada and Responding to the Oppression of Addiction (with William S. Rowe). The remainder of his time is spent coaching and managing his two sons’ hockey and baseball teams.