PSS Ethical and Professional Responsibilities 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A peer specialist notices they are feeling burned out and increasingly cynical about their service recipients. The ethical response is to:
- Push through and prioritize service recipients' needs above their own
- Seek supervision, peer support, or professional counseling for themselves (Correct answer)
- Take informal leave without notifying the agency
- Reduce caseload without telling a supervisor
Correct answer: Seek supervision, peer support, or professional counseling for themselves
Self-care and seeking support are professional responsibilities; burnout impairs the quality of care provided.
Question 2: Which scenario represents a violation of confidentiality by a peer support specialist?
- Sharing case details in a formal supervision session
- Discussing a recipient's progress with a treatment team member who has a signed release
- Mentioning a recipient's name and situation to a friend over dinner (Correct answer)
- Documenting session notes in a secured electronic health record
Correct answer: Mentioning a recipient's name and situation to a friend over dinner
Disclosing identifiable information to someone outside the care team without consent is a breach of confidentiality.
Question 3: Cultural humility in peer support practice primarily involves:
- Becoming an expert in every culture represented in your caseload
- Recognizing the limits of one's own cultural perspective and remaining open to learning (Correct answer)
- Avoiding discussions of cultural differences to prevent discomfort
- Applying a single evidence-based approach universally across all cultures
Correct answer: Recognizing the limits of one's own cultural perspective and remaining open to learning
Cultural humility is an ongoing process of self-reflection and openness rather than achieving cultural competence.
Question 4: A peer specialist suspects a colleague is working while under the influence of alcohol. The best course of action is to:
- Wait to see if the behavior continues before taking any action
- Confront the colleague aggressively in front of service recipients
- Report the concern to a supervisor to ensure recipient safety (Correct answer)
- Cover for the colleague to protect their job
Correct answer: Report the concern to a supervisor to ensure recipient safety
Impaired colleagues pose a safety risk; reporting to a supervisor is the ethical and professional obligation.
Question 5: When a peer specialist disagrees with a service recipient's recovery goal, the ethical approach is to:
- Redirect the individual toward a goal the peer specialist believes is more appropriate
- Refuse to provide services until the individual adopts a clinician-approved goal
- Support the individual's self-determined goal while expressing honest concerns if relevant (Correct answer)
- Document the disagreement and withhold support until supervision
Correct answer: Support the individual's self-determined goal while expressing honest concerns if relevant
Peer support upholds self-determination; a peer may share honest perspective but must ultimately respect the individual's chosen direction.
Question 6: Which of the following is NOT a mandatory reporting situation for a peer support specialist?
- A service recipient discloses active plans to harm a specific person
- A child is being abused or neglected in the home
- A service recipient reports past recreational drug use that has stopped (Correct answer)
- An elderly recipient describes being financially exploited by a family member
Correct answer: A service recipient reports past recreational drug use that has stopped
Past, resolved drug use that poses no current safety risk is not a mandatory reporting trigger.
Question 7: A peer specialist's primary ethical obligation when a conflict arises between an agency policy and a service recipient's rights is to:
- Always follow agency policy without question
- Advocate for the service recipient through appropriate channels (Correct answer)
- Ignore agency policy and act solely on the recipient's wishes
- Consult only external organizations and bypass the agency
Correct answer: Advocate for the service recipient through appropriate channels
Peer specialists must advocate for recipients using internal grievance processes and, when necessary, external avenues.
PSS Ethical and Professional Responsibilities 3
A peer specialist notices they are feeling burned out and increasingly cynical about their service recipients.
The ethical response is to: