PSS Advocacy, Empowerment, and Navigating Systems 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A peer specialist is helping someone navigate the mental health system for the first time. What is the most empowering approach?
- Make all the calls and appointments on the person's behalf
- Walk alongside the person as they make their own calls and decisions (Correct answer)
- Give the person a list of resources and let them figure it out alone
- Contact the person's family to coordinate care without asking the person first
Correct answer: Walk alongside the person as they make their own calls and decisions
Empowerment means supporting the person to take the lead in their own recovery, not doing things for them.
Question 2: Which of the following best describes 'systems advocacy' in peer support work?
- Helping an individual file a personal grievance
- Working to change policies, practices, or laws that affect people with mental health conditions broadly (Correct answer)
- Advocating for a peer's housing situation directly
- Helping a peer choose between two treatment providers
Correct answer: Working to change policies, practices, or laws that affect people with mental health conditions broadly
Systems advocacy targets structural change at the policy or organizational level to benefit a population, not just one individual.
Question 3: When supporting a peer in self-advocacy, a peer specialist should primarily:
- Speak on the peer's behalf whenever possible to ensure accuracy
- Help the person identify and clearly articulate their own needs and rights (Correct answer)
- Advise the peer to accept what clinicians recommend without question
- Discourage self-advocacy to avoid conflict with providers
Correct answer: Help the person identify and clearly articulate their own needs and rights
Self-advocacy skills empower peers to express their needs and rights independently, which is a core recovery goal.
Question 4: A peer specialist notices a systemic barrier preventing people from accessing medication-assisted treatment in their community. The most appropriate next step is to:
- Ignore it since systemic issues are outside their role
- Document the barrier and bring it to the attention of supervisors or advocacy groups (Correct answer)
- Personally prescribe an alternative treatment
- Advise peers to travel to another county for services
Correct answer: Document the barrier and bring it to the attention of supervisors or advocacy groups
Identifying and reporting systemic barriers is a legitimate and important part of a peer specialist's advocacy role.
Question 5: The concept of 'nothing about us without us' in mental health advocacy means:
- Providers should make decisions faster without waiting for input
- People with lived experience must be included in decisions that affect them (Correct answer)
- Peer specialists should handle all advocacy independently
- Administrative processes should be simplified
Correct answer: People with lived experience must be included in decisions that affect them
This principle asserts that people with lived experience of mental illness should be central participants in policies, services, and decisions affecting them.
Question 6: A peer is frustrated that their insurance repeatedly denies coverage for a needed service. A peer specialist should:
- Tell the peer to accept the denial and seek free alternatives only
- Help the peer understand the appeals process and support them in filing one (Correct answer)
- File the appeal on the peer's behalf without involving them
- Contact the insurance company and demand immediate approval
Correct answer: Help the peer understand the appeals process and support them in filing one
Supporting a peer through the appeals process builds their self-advocacy skills while addressing the immediate barrier.
Question 7: Which federal law prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities, including mental health conditions, in public accommodations and employment?
- HIPAA
- The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (Correct answer)
- The Mental Health Parity Act
- The Affordable Care Act
Correct answer: The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
The ADA prohibits discrimination based on disability in employment, public accommodations, and government services.
PSS Advocacy, Empowerment, and Navigating Systems 2
A peer specialist is helping someone navigate the mental health system for the first time.
What is the most empowering approach?