NCPRSS study plan

Define peer recovery support in your own words and distinguish it from clinical treatment, case management, and sponsorship, writing a one-paragraph contrast for each.

Map the core roles of a peer recovery support specialist (mentor, navigator, advocate, group facilitator, recovery coach) and match each to at least two concrete on-the-job examples.

Explain the historical and policy roots of peer support in behavioral health, including the recovery movement and the emergence of peer credentialing, without relying on any single organization's narrative.

Identify the boundaries of the peer role, listing at least five tasks that fall outside scope and the correct referral pathway for each.

Draft your own personal recovery story in a three-minute spoken format that stays person-first and avoids clinical jargon.

Distinguish the ethical principles that govern peer work (self-determination, nonmaleficence, fidelity, justice, veracity) and apply each to a realistic peer-support scenario.

Analyze dual relationships and role blending, and write decision rules for when to disclose your own recovery status and when not to.

Explain confidentiality rules in plain language, including its limits (imminent danger, suspected abuse or neglect, court order) and how to preview those limits with a peer.

Practice boundary-setting language for five high-risk situations such as lending money, giving rides, social media contact, gifts, and providing housing.

Compare mandatory reporting duties and organizational policy so you can state which obligation takes precedence in a conflict.

Demonstrate active listening skills by writing reflective statements, open questions, and summaries for three recorded or scripted peer dialogues.

Apply motivational interviewing spirit and OARS (open questions, affirmations, reflections, summaries) to a conversation about ambivalence toward change.

Recognize and respond to change talk versus sustain talk, and practice at least ten responses that elicit and reinforce change talk.

Identify communication traps such as advice-giving, confronting, and premature problem-solving, and rewrite each as a recovery-oriented response.

Explain how to build trust and hope with a peer in the first three contacts, including rapport-building behaviors and language that conveys belief in the person's capacity.

Translate a peer's stated aspiration into a specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound recovery goal, and break it into two or three near-term steps.

Facilitate a recovery planning conversation using a strengths inventory, identifying at least five personal strengths and supports before discussing needs.

Distinguish recovery capital categories (social, physical, human, cultural, community) and write one probing question for each to use in planning.

Build a plan that includes relapse-prevention elements: personal warning signs, coping strategies, and a written support contact list.

Practice revising a plan when the peer disengages or relapses, keeping the plan person-directed rather than prescriptive.

Compile a local resource directory covering housing, transportation, employment, benefits, legal aid, childcare, and peer-led mutual aid groups, verifying contact details for each entry.

Explain how to make a warm handoff, including what information to share with the receiving provider, with consent, and how to confirm the connection happened.

Identify barriers peers commonly face when accessing services and write at least two advocacy strategies for each barrier.

Distinguish advocacy at the individual level from systems-level advocacy, and describe how a peer specialist can raise a systemic gap without overstepping role boundaries.

Practice coaching a peer to self-advocate in a benefits or treatment-access conversation using role-play.

Recognize warning signs of suicide risk and overdose risk, and state the immediate actions a peer specialist should take, including when to escalate to emergency services.

Explain the limits of the peer role in a crisis and how to stay engaged without taking clinical authority.

Practice de-escalation communication for an agitated peer, using calm tone, space, short sentences, and validation before problem-solving.

Draft a personal safety plan template that a peer can complete, including warning signs, coping strategies, reasons for living, and emergency contacts.

Describe how to support someone after a relapse or crisis without shame-based language, and identify the referral and follow-up steps.

Explain cultural humility and identify at least four ways implicit bias can affect peer support relationships and service access.

Apply trauma-informed principles (safety, trustworthiness, peer support, collaboration, empowerment, cultural humility) to specific peer interactions, writing one concrete behavior for each principle.

Adapt communication for interpreters, low-literacy materials, and differing cultural norms around family involvement and help-seeking.

Recognize signs of trauma response in conversation and practice grounding and choice-giving responses rather than probing for details.

Examine how your own identity, recovery path, and assumptions shape your reactions, and write a personal bias-awareness reflection.

Write progress notes that are objective, behavior-based, person-first, and compliant with documentation standards, using a fictional session and avoiding opinion or diagnosis language.

Distinguish what belongs in a peer record versus what stays out, and describe how to correct a documentation error properly.

Prepare for supervision by drafting an agenda that raises an ethical dilemma, a boundary question, and one skill you want feedback on.

Build a personal professional development plan covering continuing education, credential renewal, self-care, and peer support network involvement.

Complete a timed 60-question cumulative practice set across all eight domains and review every missed item to identify your two weakest domains.