Assignment: Capella University Certified Peer Specialist Admission Essay
Question Description
(150 words maximum for each question)
Peers can relate to others in a non-clinical, more personal way as they have a similar lived experience. Peers are positive role models and offer hope to others, demonstrating by their own life that recovery is possible. Tasks performed by Peer Support Specialists may include helping you to: • Express and achieve your goals for recovery • Monitor your own progress • Learn effective coping and self-help strategies • Find effective services and supports • Get the most from your Person Centered Planning process • Develop Wellness Plans • Develop Advance Directives • Get support during a crisis • Participate in the community • Become more independent and productive
Peers promote hope through positive self-disclosure, demonstrating that recovery is possible. They provide role models of self-care and the effective use of recovery skills. They lead support groups. Their experience and knowledge helps others in managing day-to-day life, not only with the illness but also with the social and human service systems. They also help people overcome discrimination, stigma and/or trauma. Peers listen attentively with respect, acceptance, and encouragement to the wants and needs of the people with whom they work. They assist people in obtaining resources, overcoming barriers, building protective factors, and pursuing their goals and dreams. Working on recovery and a life of health and wellness is a journey that takes time and daily work. Setbacks or relapses are possible. With the coping skills, supports and tools you learn, life can and will return to one of maintenance much sooner. Peers have walked this road and understand in a way others who have not lived with a mental illness cannot.
1. Why do you want to become a Certified Peer Specialist (CPS)? My passion for helping in thr healing process of others and assisting in finsing appropriate resources.
2. What makes you a good candidate to work with other consumers in the behavioral health field? My life experience of living thru addiction REHAP; recovery.
3. What types of experiences have you had in advocating for consumers of behavioral health services? Please describe in detail, listing efforts in letter-writing, personal advocacy, public testimony, programs you began, the work you are doing now, etc… Be specific. I am a person who has dealt with situations issues in my process of change that the client themselves may have. With the right guidence and determination I made it. i want to also help others to see their way through this process of recovery. I’ve been we’re most of their clients that come thru they re door s have been and made it through the other side successfully
4. Describe your current employment or volunteer situation. If neither applies, how do you spend your time? I’VE VOLUNTEERED AT THE SENIOR CENTER WHERE MY MOTHERS GO TO. I VOULNTEER AT MY CHURCH HELP MEMEBERS WHO ARE IN NEED AND NEED ASSISTAINCE.
5. How do you define recovery? What do people who know you are in recovery say about you
6. How do you give back to your family and friends since you have been in recovery? I SHARE MY STORY AND PROVID HOPE WHEN THEY ARE DOWN.
7. Why do you think it is important for Certified Peer Specialist to share their story?
8. What will be your most difficult challenge in attending this training? How will you deal with this challenge? TRANSPORTION, WORKING WITH MY CASE WORKER TO ASSITNACE ME.
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.