PSS Skills and Qualities 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A peer specialist notices a peer becoming increasingly agitated during a conversation. What is the BEST de-escalation skill to use first?
- Immediately call a supervisor
- Lower your voice and slow your speech to model calmness (Correct answer)
- Ask the peer to leave and return when calm
- Document the behavior for the clinical team
Correct answer: Lower your voice and slow your speech to model calmness
Lowering your voice and slowing speech models calm behavior and signals safety, which is a foundational de-escalation technique.
Question 2: Which quality BEST distinguishes peer support from traditional clinical mental health services?
- Peers are licensed to diagnose mental health conditions
- Peers use their lived experience as a therapeutic tool (Correct answer)
- Peers provide medication management
- Peers write treatment plans independently
Correct answer: Peers use their lived experience as a therapeutic tool
The defining quality of peer support is the intentional use of one's own lived experience with mental health or substance use challenges to build connection and hope.
Question 3: When practicing active listening, a peer specialist should PRIMARILY focus on:
- Formulating the best advice to give after the peer finishes speaking
- Reflecting feelings and summarizing to show understanding (Correct answer)
- Taking detailed notes to share with the treatment team
- Interrupting when they recognize patterns from their own experience
Correct answer: Reflecting feelings and summarizing to show understanding
Active listening involves reflecting feelings and summarizing content to demonstrate genuine understanding rather than preparing a response.
Question 4: A peer specialist discloses their own recovery story. This practice is BEST described as:
- Boundary crossing that should be avoided
- Intentional self-disclosure used to build hope and connection (Correct answer)
- Oversharing that shifts focus away from the peer
- A requirement only for substance use peer specialists
Correct answer: Intentional self-disclosure used to build hope and connection
Intentional self-disclosure means thoughtfully sharing one's own experience in a way that serves the peer's recovery, not the specialist's personal needs.
Question 5: Which of the following BEST describes the skill of 'motivational interviewing' as used by peer specialists?
- Persuading peers to accept their diagnosis
- Evoking the peer's own motivation for change through collaborative conversation (Correct answer)
- Providing a list of reasons why change is necessary
- Confronting resistance directly to break through denial
Correct answer: Evoking the peer's own motivation for change through collaborative conversation
Motivational interviewing draws out the peer's intrinsic motivation by exploring ambivalence and reinforcing their own reasons for change.
Question 6: A peer specialist who consistently arrives on time, follows through on commitments, and maintains confidentiality is demonstrating:
- Advanced clinical skill
- Trustworthiness and professional reliability (Correct answer)
- Compliance with medication protocols
- Supervisory authority
Correct answer: Trustworthiness and professional reliability
Trustworthiness and reliability are core professional qualities that form the foundation of an effective peer support relationship.
Question 7: When a peer expresses hopelessness about their recovery, the MOST appropriate peer specialist response is to:
- Remind them of the consequences of giving up
- Share that recovery is possible and reference your own or others' journeys with hope (Correct answer)
- Reassure them that feelings always pass quickly
- Refer them immediately to a psychiatrist
Correct answer: Share that recovery is possible and reference your own or others' journeys with hope
Instilling hope by sharing evidence of recovery — including the specialist's own journey — is one of the most powerful tools a peer specialist has.
PSS Skills and Qualities 2
A peer specialist notices a peer becoming increasingly agitated during a conversation.
What is the BEST de-escalation skill to use first?