CPSS Ethics & Cultural Competency 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under North Carolina peer support ethics guidelines, self-disclosure by a peer specialist should be:
- Extensive to build trust and relatability
- Purposeful, limited, and focused on benefiting the peer (Correct answer)
- Avoided entirely to maintain professional distance
- Shared only when a peer asks a direct personal question
Correct answer: Purposeful, limited, and focused on benefiting the peer
Ethical self-disclosure is strategic and peer-centered, used to foster hope and connection rather than for the specialist's benefit.
Question 2: Which scenario best represents a dual relationship that a peer specialist should avoid?
- Attending the same community event as a peer
- Providing peer support services to a close personal friend (Correct answer)
- Sharing a recovery story with a new peer
- Working at the same agency as another peer specialist
Correct answer: Providing peer support services to a close personal friend
Providing peer support to a close personal friend creates a dual relationship that compromises objectivity and professional boundaries.
Question 3: Cultural competency training for peer specialists in North Carolina is considered:
- Optional if the specialist already has lived experience with mental illness
- A one-time certification requirement completed at hire
- An ongoing professional development responsibility throughout one's career (Correct answer)
- Only required when serving populations different from one's own background
Correct answer: An ongoing professional development responsibility throughout one's career
Cultural competency is a continuous process requiring lifelong learning and professional development, not a one-time event.
Question 4: A peer specialist is asked by a supervisor to document false information about a peer's progress to justify continued funding. The specialist should:
- Comply since the supervisor has authority over documentation
- Refuse and report the unethical request through appropriate channels (Correct answer)
- Document the truth but tell the supervisor the record was changed
- Quit the job immediately to avoid involvement
Correct answer: Refuse and report the unethical request through appropriate channels
Falsifying records is unethical and potentially illegal; specialists must refuse and use proper reporting channels.
Question 5: When working with a peer from a collectivist cultural background, a peer specialist should understand that:
- Individual autonomy should always take precedence over family input
- Recovery decisions may naturally involve family and community rather than being purely individual (Correct answer)
- Involving family members violates HIPAA in all cases
- Collectivist values are incompatible with recovery-oriented care
Correct answer: Recovery decisions may naturally involve family and community rather than being purely individual
Culturally competent care recognizes that for peers from collectivist backgrounds, family and community are often central to recovery planning.
Question 6: A peer specialist who fails to maintain CPSS certification requirements is demonstrating a lack of:
- Cultural sensitivity
- Professional accountability (Correct answer)
- Empathy toward peers
- Boundaries with supervisors
Correct answer: Professional accountability
Maintaining certification is a professional accountability obligation under the CPSS ethical framework.
Question 7: Which of the following is a key principle of the peer support ethical standard of 'non-judgment'?
- Avoiding feedback even when peers make harmful choices
- Accepting peers' experiences and choices without imposing moral evaluation (Correct answer)
- Agreeing with every decision a peer makes
- Refraining from any form of clinical assessment
Correct answer: Accepting peers' experiences and choices without imposing moral evaluation
Non-judgment means accepting peers' experiences and choices without moral evaluation, which supports trust and open communication.
CPSS Ethics & Cultural Competency 3
Under North Carolina peer support ethics guidelines, self-disclosure by a peer specialist should be: