Cheryl Regehr
Biographic Data
| ID | 297177 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Cheryl Regehr |
| GIVEN NAMES | Cheryl |
| FAMILY NAME | Regehr |
| SIGNATURE | REGEHR C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Toronto |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7814-7836 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 47 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 161 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 47 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1993 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
From pandemic crisis to recovery and resilience
The abrupt onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced a dramatic shift in higher education. Over time, the prolonged and cyclical nature of public-health restrictions conditioned students, faculty, and staff to adopt a crisis mindset as their baseline. Moving from crisis to recovery therefore posed unique obstacles at both individual (e.g. anxiety, exhaustion, and post-traumatic stress) and organizational levels (e.g. transition logistics, labor marke…
Development of the trauma-informed archival practices scale
In response to the growing awareness regarding the potential for emotional trauma in both archivists and members of the public (donors, users, and community members) who interact with records of human suffering and atrocity, there has been a call for the implementation of trauma-informed practices in archival organizations. Several prominent researchers and theorists have suggested policy and practice elements that would support trauma-informed a…
Experiences of in-person violence and cyberviolence against child welfare workers in Canada
Studies conducted in countries across the world have consistently demonstrated high rates of in-person violence towards social workers, and particularly social workers engaged in challenging areas of practice such as child welfare. More recently, research has focused on the cyberworld as a new avenue for abuse against workers. Employing an online survey, this research sought to compare the experiences and effects of in-person violence and cybervi…
Correctional officer recruits’ navigation of overwhelm
Provoking Reflection in Action in Experienced Practitioners
Stress experienced during high-risk decision-making may impair performance, but can also be a cue, provoking the move from intuitive and automatic application of expertise to reflective and deliberative approaches. This article reports an exploratory intervention designed to provoke reflection-in-action and, ultimately, to improve practice decision making in experienced clinicians. The intervention combined: classroom-based education on decision-…
Measuring Competence in Social Work
Professor Marion Bogo’s stellar academic career was distinguished by her long-standing advocacy for high quality assessment of social work students. Her work was a driving force behind the development of meaningful, authentic and relevant field assessment that incorporates specific, definable, observable skills with higher-order thinking. This article briefly describes assessment of competencies and two conceptual issues identified as limitations…
Towards a “New Mothering” Practice? The Life Experiences of Mothers Raising a Child with Autism in Urban Ethiopia
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurological and developmental disorder that has seen an increase in prevalence over the past two decades, particularly in low and middle-income countries. The purpose of the current paper is to examine the experiences of mothers in Ethiopia raising a child with ASD through employing a qualitative research design involving semi-structured interviews with twenty mothers. The experiences of mothers in thi…
Emotional responses in archival work
Building on previous work investigating the impact of exposure to (a) records with traumatic potentialities and (b) interactions with donors and community researchers whose suffering is documented in the archives, this study sought to better understand emotional aspects of archival work. Using a diary research methodology, 15 archivists engaged in diary keeping for approximately four months. What emerged was a broad set of events and experiences …
Comparing an In-Person and Online Continuing Education Intervention to Improve Professional Decision-Making
Purpose: This paper compares two iterations (in-person and online) of a multi-stage continuing education program for improving high-risk decision-making among mental health workers. Methods: The mixed-methods study analyzed the following: (1) physiological and psychological arousal during simulated patient interviews; (2) physiological and psychological arousal recorded during real-time decision-making over four months; and (3) thoughts on the pr…
Gender in the Flesh
Gender and work are important social determinants of health, yet studies of health inequities related to the gendered and emotional intricacies of work are rare. Occupations high in emotional labour - a known job stressor - are associated with ill-health and typically dominated by women. Little is known about the mechanisms linking health with these emotional components of work. Using physiological and questionnaire data from Canadian police comm…
Traumatic residue, mediated remembering and video evidence of sexual violence
Humans and records are entangled”
There is growing awareness in archival communities that working with records that contain evidence of human pain and suffering can result in unsettling emotions for archivists. One important finding of this work, however, is the considerable variability in not only the nature of responses, but also the nature of records that provoke emotional responses. Using in-depth qualitative interviews with 20 archivists from across Canada and one from the U…
Understanding health outcomes following workplace aggression
This study explored health outcomes following workplace aggression among social workers in Israel. Grounded in the social exchange theory, a relationship-based perspective was used to explain the mechanism through which exposure to workplace aggression results in employee outcomes. Reports of employees and managers were analysed with respect to the impact of varied forms of aggressive behaviours perpetrated by clients and co-workers on posttrauma…
Organizational support for the potentially traumatic impact of video evidence of violent crime in the criminal justice system
As graphic video evidence becomes a standard element in the investigation and prosecution of violent crime, criminal justice organizations must consider and address exposure to and impact of this potentially traumatizing workplace material for criminal justice professionals. Using a discovery-oriented qualitative design and a long-interview method of data collection, this study explores organizational responses to the exposure of criminal justice…
Improving Professional Decision Making in Situations of Risk and Uncertainty
Social workers and other professionals providing mental health services are regularly required to make high-stakes decisions in situations characterised by conflicting demands. To better understand the factors that drive clinical decision making in situations of risk and uncertainty, we used a design-based research framework to pilot a new approach for improving professional decision making. The programme, which combined simulated interviews, a m…
Tolerating Risk
As a leading cause of death among those suffering from mental health problems, suicide is an issue that challenges policy makers, organizations, and practitioners alike. One outcome has been the implementation of standardized decision-making tools, developed through actuarial methods and aimed at limiting risks inherent in professional judgments. However, despite legislative and policy attempts to standardize the outcomes of risk assessment, prof…
Prevalence of PTSD, Depression and Anxiety Disorders in Correctional Officers
An Ecological Model for High-Risk Professional Decision-Making in Mental Health
Mental health professionals are frequently presented with situations in which they must assess the risk that a client will cause harm to themselves or others. Troublingly, however, predictions of risk are remarkably inaccurate even when made by those who are highly skilled and highly trained. Consequently, many jurisdictions have moved to impose standardized decision-making tools aimed at improving outcomes. Using a decision-making ecology framew…
Technology facilitated re-victimization
With the ubiquity of technological devices producing video and audio recordings, violent crimes are increasingly captured digitally and used as evidence in the criminal justice process. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study involving Canadian criminal justice professionals, and asks questions surrounding the treatment of video evidence and the rights of victims captured within such images. We argue that loss of control over perso…
Suicide Risk Assessments
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Cognitive and Affective Elements of Practice Confidence in Social Work Students and Practitioners
Confidence has been identified as both a positive outcome of social work education and as a factor which in excess (defined as overconfidence) can lead to diagnostic error. This study sought to better understand the nature of professional confidence and investigate factors that might be associated with confidence in performance in a clinical interview among social work students and experienced social work practitioners. In this study, thirty-seve…
Suicide risk assessments
Professional judgment in complex clinical situations such as the assessment of suicide risk encompasses a multifaceted cognitive understanding of the substantive issues, technical expertise, and emotional awareness. This experimental design study investigated the degree to which the previous work-related experiences of clinicians and their preexisting emotional state influence professional judgment regarding acute risk in patients presenting with…
Illuminating Students’ Pre-Practicum Conceptual and Emotional States
Pre-practicum student reflections were studied using an Objective Standard Clinical Examination adapted for social work. One hundred and nine students conducted simulated interviews and immediately wrote answers to reflective questions. Reflections were studied using descriptive qualitative methodology. Three patterns emerged: students rely primarily on their personal and/or professional experience rather than theoretical knowledge; they are easi…
Interventions to reduce stress in university students
Predictors of physiological stress and psychological distress in police communicators
This study sought to better understand experiences of psychological distress and physiological stress in police communicators. One-hundred and thirteen police communicators from both rural and urban areas completed questionnaires that addressed psychological distress (acute anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress), coping strategies, social supports, and locus of control. Communicators reported high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder…
Confidence and Professional Judgment in Assessing Children’s Risk of Abuse
Objective: Child welfare agencies have moved toward standardized risk assessment measures to improve the reliability with which child’s risk of abuse is predicted. Nevertheless, these tools require a degree of subjective judgment. Research to date has not substantially investigated the influence of specific context and worker characteristics on professional judgment in the use of risk assessment measures. Method: This research utilized standardiz…
Operationalizing Evidence-Based Practice
Although evidence-based practice (EBP) has received increasing attention in social work in the past few years, there has been limited success in moving from academic discussion to engaging social workers in the process of implementing EBP in practice. This article describes the challenges, successes, and future aims in the process of developing a university-based institute for evidence-based social work. Aspects of the development include attempt…
Predictors of post-traumatic distress in child welfare workers
Evaluating an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) Adapted for Social Work
Objectives: To evaluate an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) adapted for social work in a lab course and examine the degree to which it predicts competence in the practicum. Method: 125 Masters students participated in a one-scenario OSCE and wrote responses to standardized reflection questions. OSCE performance and reflections were rated on previously standardized scales, competence in field was evaluated using the online practice…
And Justice for All
Concern for the recognition, support, and rights of victims within the criminal justice system has grown in recent years, leading to legislative and procedural changes in the administration of justice that have improved the experiences of victims. What is not clear is whether all victims have benefited from changes in the system regardless of race and social class. This study investigates the experiences Aboriginal people who are victims of sexua…
Beyond Individual Rights and Freedoms
Increasingly, social workers are called on to demonstrate the efficacy of their interventions and to contribute to knowledge building in the social sciences. Although social workers have a long tradition of practice ethics, less attention has been given to the unique dimensions of research ethics for social workers. A social work model of research ethics would consider how to balance highly valued ethical principles that are individually focused,…
Risky Business
Objective: A multistage, mixed-methods study using grounded theory with descriptive data was conducted to examine factors in disclosure of intimate partner violence (IPV). Method: In-depth interviews with individuals and focus groups were undertaken to collect data from 98 IPV survivors and service providers to identify influential factors. Quantitative data were also collected on adult trauma levels and child concerns from 20 women. Results: An …
Inquiries into Deaths of Children in Care
Coercive Influences
Journal Article Coercive Influences: Informed Consent in Court-Mandated Social Work Practice Get access Cheryl Regehr, PhD, CSW, Cheryl Regehr, PhD, CSW assistant professor Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5 Canada; e-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Beverley Antle, MSW, RSW Beverley Antle, MSW, RSW PhD candidate Faculty of Social …
Cognitive and Affective Elements of Practice Confidence in Social Work Students and Practitioners
Confidence has been identified as both a positive outcome of social work education and as a factor which in excess (defined as overconfidence) can lead to diagnostic error. This study sought to better understand the nature of professional confidence and investigate factors that might be associated with confidence in performance in a clinical interview among social work students and experienced social work practitioners. In this study, thirty-seve…
The Development of an Online Practice-Based Evaluation Tool for Social Work
Objective: This paper describes the development of a practice-based evaluation (PBE) tool that allows instructors to represent their student’s clinical performance in a way that is sufficiently authentic to resonate with both instructors and students, is psychometrically sound, and is feasible in the context of real practice. Method: A new online evaluation tool was designed to address several of the problems associated with previous methods of e…
Illuminating Students’ Pre-Practicum Conceptual and Emotional States
Pre-practicum student reflections were studied using an Objective Standard Clinical Examination adapted for social work. One hundred and nine students conducted simulated interviews and immediately wrote answers to reflective questions. Reflections were studied using descriptive qualitative methodology. Three patterns emerged: students rely primarily on their personal and/or professional experience rather than theoretical knowledge; they are easi…
Understanding health outcomes following workplace aggression
This study explored health outcomes following workplace aggression among social workers in Israel. Grounded in the social exchange theory, a relationship-based perspective was used to explain the mechanism through which exposure to workplace aggression results in employee outcomes. Reports of employees and managers were analysed with respect to the impact of varied forms of aggressive behaviours perpetrated by clients and co-workers on posttrauma…
Interventions to Reduce Distress in Adult Victims of Rape and Sexual Violence
Objectives: This article presents a systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing distress in adult victims of rape and sexual violence. Method: Studies were eligible for the review if the assignment of study participants to experimental or control groups was by random allocation or parallel cohort design. Results: Six studies including 405 participants met eligibility criteria. Meta-analyses revealed that specific…
Cross-cultural application of self-in-relation theory
English The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine the manner in which ‘selfinrelation’ theory applies to Asian (Taiwanese) women. The findings indicate that participants' perceptions of self and others vary based on distinctive social categories. Implications for culturally appropriate social work practice, in particular the working alliance, are addressed. French L'objectif de cette étude qualitative est d'analyser la façon dont la thé…
Humans and records are entangled”
There is growing awareness in archival communities that working with records that contain evidence of human pain and suffering can result in unsettling emotions for archivists. One important finding of this work, however, is the considerable variability in not only the nature of responses, but also the nature of records that provoke emotional responses. Using in-depth qualitative interviews with 20 archivists from across Canada and one from the U…
Gender in the Flesh
Gender and work are important social determinants of health, yet studies of health inequities related to the gendered and emotional intricacies of work are rare. Occupations high in emotional labour - a known job stressor - are associated with ill-health and typically dominated by women. Little is known about the mechanisms linking health with these emotional components of work. Using physiological and questionnaire data from Canadian police comm…
Improving Professional Decision Making in Situations of Risk and Uncertainty
Social workers and other professionals providing mental health services are regularly required to make high-stakes decisions in situations characterised by conflicting demands. To better understand the factors that drive clinical decision making in situations of risk and uncertainty, we used a design-based research framework to pilot a new approach for improving professional decision making. The programme, which combined simulated interviews, a m…
Tolerating Risk
As a leading cause of death among those suffering from mental health problems, suicide is an issue that challenges policy makers, organizations, and practitioners alike. One outcome has been the implementation of standardized decision-making tools, developed through actuarial methods and aimed at limiting risks inherent in professional judgments. However, despite legislative and policy attempts to standardize the outcomes of risk assessment, prof…
Technology facilitated re-victimization
With the ubiquity of technological devices producing video and audio recordings, violent crimes are increasingly captured digitally and used as evidence in the criminal justice process. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study involving Canadian criminal justice professionals, and asks questions surrounding the treatment of video evidence and the rights of victims captured within such images. We argue that loss of control over perso…
Evaluating a Scale to Measure Student Competencies in Macro Social Work Practice
This article outlines the development of an evaluation tool for measuring student competency in macrolevel social work practice. Researchers followed a multistage process that incorporated the wisdom of experienced field instructors in identifying key competencies for practice, ranking performance levels in each competency, and evaluating the reliability and validity of the scale. The resulting Macro Practice-Based Evaluation tool includes six sk…
On the Brink of Disaster
In recent years mental health professionals have become increasingly aware of their role in ameliorating the impact of disaster and have begun to develop models for systematizing interventions. As many have noted, however, these models are largely based on clinical wisdom due to the dearth of empirical data on disaster and its social and psychological consequences. This article describes one model of disaster intervention, the Triple ABCD Model, …
Communities that care
Protecting severely abused children
Child abuse legislation and increased public scrutiny have made child abuse the main focus of child welfare agencies. As a criminal act, severe child abuse should be dealt with by the criminal justice system to protect both endangered children and the rights of accused parents. Thus relieved of excessive demands, child welfare agencies could refocus on treatment and services to economically disadvantaged clients. A framework for intervention in a…
Sexual exploitation of patients
The accusation of sexual exploitation of a patient by a mental health care professional has ramifications for colleagues of the accused. Co-workers are likely to experience conflicting feelings of betrayal, guilt, and embarrassment, and to face such personal issues as loyalty to the alleged offender and generalized fear about safety. In addition, they are often confronted with simultaneous demands of increased clinical loads and pressure to parti…
Coercive Influences
Journal Article Coercive Influences: Informed Consent in Court-Mandated Social Work Practice Get access Cheryl Regehr, PhD, CSW, Cheryl Regehr, PhD, CSW assistant professor Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5 Canada; e-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Beverley Antle, MSW, RSW Beverley Antle, MSW, RSW PhD candidate Faculty of Social …
Perceptions of control and long-term recovery from rape
The relationship between perceptions of control and symptoms of both long-term depression and post-traumatic stress was examined. Enduring beliefs of personal competence and control were found to be associated with lower rates of depression and stress and to be stronger predictors of long-term recovery than were rape-specific attributions. Implications for clinical practice are discussed
Empathy and Its Influence on Sexual Misconduct
A deficit in empathy is generally regarded as a factor that contributes to the occurrence of sexual offenses and sexual boundary violations. As a result, many experts recommend empathy training as a part of any program that attempts to reduce recidivism among offenders. Considerable controversy exists, however, with regard to the definition of empathy, the actual influence of empathy on sociopathic behavior, and whether empathy can indeed be taug…
Inquiries into Deaths of Children in Care
Exposure to human tragedy, empathy, and trauma in ambulance paramedics
Paramedics are exposed to events involving human pain and suffering on a daily basis, many of which are the result of violence perpetrated by 1 individual on another. For the most part, these emergency workers have learned to deal with such events and take them in stride. At times, however, certain circumstances lead workers to develop an emotional connection with the victim or his or her family. When this occurs, paramedics report increased symp…
Beyond Individual Rights and Freedoms
Increasingly, social workers are called on to demonstrate the efficacy of their interventions and to contribute to knowledge building in the social sciences. Although social workers have a long tradition of practice ethics, less attention has been given to the unique dimensions of research ethics for social workers. A social work model of research ethics would consider how to balance highly valued ethical principles that are individually focused,…
Factors contributing to posttraumatic growth
With the current shift to include positive outcomes of trauma, this research was designed to explore factors that allow growth to occur. Structural equation modeling was used to test a model for understanding posttraumatic growth. A sample (N = 174) of bereaved HIV/AIDS caregivers completed questionnaires. Spirituality, social support, and stressors were found to have a positive relationship with growth. Facilitation of posttraumatic growth is cr…
Predictors of post-traumatic distress in child welfare workers
Cross-cultural application of self-in-relation theory
English The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine the manner in which ‘selfinrelation’ theory applies to Asian (Taiwanese) women. The findings indicate that participants' perceptions of self and others vary based on distinctive social categories. Implications for culturally appropriate social work practice, in particular the working alliance, are addressed. French L'objectif de cette étude qualitative est d'analyser la façon dont la thé…
Operationalizing Evidence-Based Practice
Although evidence-based practice (EBP) has received increasing attention in social work in the past few years, there has been limited success in moving from academic discussion to engaging social workers in the process of implementing EBP in practice. This article describes the challenges, successes, and future aims in the process of developing a university-based institute for evidence-based social work. Aspects of the development include attempt…
And Justice for All
Concern for the recognition, support, and rights of victims within the criminal justice system has grown in recent years, leading to legislative and procedural changes in the administration of justice that have improved the experiences of victims. What is not clear is whether all victims have benefited from changes in the system regardless of race and social class. This study investigates the experiences Aboriginal people who are victims of sexua…
On the Brink of Disaster
In recent years mental health professionals have become increasingly aware of their role in ameliorating the impact of disaster and have begun to develop models for systematizing interventions. As many have noted, however, these models are largely based on clinical wisdom due to the dearth of empirical data on disaster and its social and psychological consequences. This article describes one model of disaster intervention, the Triple ABCD Model, …
Confidence and Professional Judgment in Assessing Children’s Risk of Abuse
Objective: Child welfare agencies have moved toward standardized risk assessment measures to improve the reliability with which child’s risk of abuse is predicted. Nevertheless, these tools require a degree of subjective judgment. Research to date has not substantially investigated the influence of specific context and worker characteristics on professional judgment in the use of risk assessment measures. Method: This research utilized standardiz…
Response to Editor’s Page
Risky Business
Objective: A multistage, mixed-methods study using grounded theory with descriptive data was conducted to examine factors in disclosure of intimate partner violence (IPV). Method: In-depth interviews with individuals and focus groups were undertaken to collect data from 98 IPV survivors and service providers to identify influential factors. Quantitative data were also collected on adult trauma levels and child concerns from 20 women. Results: An …
The Development of an Online Practice-Based Evaluation Tool for Social Work
Objective: This paper describes the development of a practice-based evaluation (PBE) tool that allows instructors to represent their student’s clinical performance in a way that is sufficiently authentic to resonate with both instructors and students, is psychometrically sound, and is feasible in the context of real practice. Method: A new online evaluation tool was designed to address several of the problems associated with previous methods of e…
Evaluating an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) Adapted for Social Work
Objectives: To evaluate an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) adapted for social work in a lab course and examine the degree to which it predicts competence in the practicum. Method: 125 Masters students participated in a one-scenario OSCE and wrote responses to standardized reflection questions. OSCE performance and reflections were rated on previously standardized scales, competence in field was evaluated using the online practice…
Evaluating a Scale to Measure Student Competencies in Macro Social Work Practice
This article outlines the development of an evaluation tool for measuring student competency in macrolevel social work practice. Researchers followed a multistage process that incorporated the wisdom of experienced field instructors in identifying key competencies for practice, ranking performance levels in each competency, and evaluating the reliability and validity of the scale. The resulting Macro Practice-Based Evaluation tool includes six sk…
Interventions to reduce stress in university students
Predictors of physiological stress and psychological distress in police communicators
This study sought to better understand experiences of psychological distress and physiological stress in police communicators. One-hundred and thirteen police communicators from both rural and urban areas completed questionnaires that addressed psychological distress (acute anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress), coping strategies, social supports, and locus of control. Communicators reported high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder…
Interventions to Reduce Distress in Adult Victims of Rape and Sexual Violence
Objectives: This article presents a systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing distress in adult victims of rape and sexual violence. Method: Studies were eligible for the review if the assignment of study participants to experimental or control groups was by random allocation or parallel cohort design. Results: Six studies including 405 participants met eligibility criteria. Meta-analyses revealed that specific…
Illuminating Students’ Pre-Practicum Conceptual and Emotional States
Pre-practicum student reflections were studied using an Objective Standard Clinical Examination adapted for social work. One hundred and nine students conducted simulated interviews and immediately wrote answers to reflective questions. Reflections were studied using descriptive qualitative methodology. Three patterns emerged: students rely primarily on their personal and/or professional experience rather than theoretical knowledge; they are easi…
Psychology (39 works) · Medicine (27 works) · Social Psychology (25 works) · Political science (20 works) · Clinical Psychology (16 works) · Psychiatry (14 works) · Social Psychology (14 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Medical education (10 works)