CPSS Advocacy 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: When a peer specialist helps someone prepare questions to ask their psychiatrist at the next appointment, this is an example of:
- Overstepping clinical boundaries
- Supporting self-advocacy and shared decision-making (Correct answer)
- Replacing the role of the psychiatrist
- Crisis intervention planning
Correct answer: Supporting self-advocacy and shared decision-making
Helping someone prepare questions empowers them to participate actively in their own care, which is a core self-advocacy skill peer specialists support.
Question 2: Peer specialists in North Carolina are encouraged to use their recovery stories in advocacy because:
- It is required by state law
- Personal narratives reduce stigma and demonstrate that recovery is real and possible (Correct answer)
- It helps peer specialists gain clinical credentials
- It allows peers to diagnose others based on shared experience
Correct answer: Personal narratives reduce stigma and demonstrate that recovery is real and possible
Sharing lived experience stories is a powerful anti-stigma tool that also illustrates recovery as a genuine outcome, strengthening advocacy messages.
Question 3: A peer specialist notices a person is reluctant to advocate for better services because they fear retaliation. The BEST response is to:
- Tell the person their fear is unfounded
- Validate the fear, discuss real risks and protections, and support the person in deciding how to proceed (Correct answer)
- Advocate on the person's behalf without informing them
- Discourage advocacy to protect the person
Correct answer: Validate the fear, discuss real risks and protections, and support the person in deciding how to proceed
Acknowledging real fears, providing accurate information about protections, and letting the person decide respects autonomy while ensuring informed participation.
Question 4: A peer specialist wants to support advocacy at the state legislative level in North Carolina. The MOST direct way to do this is:
- Write anonymous letters to newspapers
- Testify at legislative hearings or meet with state legislators through organized advocacy days (Correct answer)
- Lobby at the federal level exclusively
- Avoid political involvement entirely to maintain professionalism
Correct answer: Testify at legislative hearings or meet with state legislators through organized advocacy days
Organized advocacy days and legislative testimony are direct, accepted methods for peer specialists to influence state behavioral health policy.
Question 5: Which of the following is a key ethical boundary for peer specialists engaged in advocacy?
- Always advocating for what the peer specialist personally believes is best
- Maintaining the individual's autonomy and not allowing personal opinions to override the person's expressed wishes (Correct answer)
- Avoiding any advocacy that might challenge a provider's decisions
- Only advocating for issues personally experienced by the peer specialist
Correct answer: Maintaining the individual's autonomy and not allowing personal opinions to override the person's expressed wishes
Ethical advocacy centers the individual's own goals and preferences, not the peer specialist's opinions—respecting autonomy is non-negotiable.
Question 6: In North Carolina's peer support specialist certification, advocacy competencies include an understanding of:
- How to prescribe medication adjustments
- The mental health system, consumer rights, and how to help individuals navigate services and appeal decisions (Correct answer)
- Legal representation techniques for courtroom settings
- Clinical assessment and diagnosis procedures
Correct answer: The mental health system, consumer rights, and how to help individuals navigate services and appeal decisions
NC CPSS advocacy competencies focus on system navigation, consumer rights knowledge, and supporting individuals through grievance and appeals processes.
Question 7: A peer specialist and the person they support disagree about the best advocacy approach. The peer specialist should:
- Override the person's preference because the peer specialist has more experience
- Defer to the person's choice, as it is their life and their advocacy (Correct answer)
- Disengage from the advocacy relationship entirely
- Consult the clinical team to make the decision
Correct answer: Defer to the person's choice, as it is their life and their advocacy
The individual's right to direct their own advocacy is paramount—peer specialists support, not supplant, the person's decision-making authority.
CPSS Advocacy 5
When a peer specialist helps someone prepare questions to ask their psychiatrist at the next appointment, this is an example of: