Answers for program participants.

RPA means Relapse Prevention Agreement. It is the agreement you signed at enrolment that sets out your customized monitoring terms.

You do not have to disclose your health information to colleagues. Your employer normally has a designate who handles employee health matters confidentially. Ask your employer or designate about workplace confidentiality policies.

Monitoring normally runs for at least one year and can continue for several years, depending on your position and your medical recommendations. In most cases it continues after you return to work. Your terms are in your RPA.

It can feel overwhelming at first. The goal is to build recovery activities into your routine at times and places that work with family and work. Talk to your monitor about scheduling; your employer will usually work with you, since monitoring is normally a condition of work.

Sessions are booked in 30-minute blocks. Participants with longer-term stable abstinence may be approved, case by case, to alternate in-person and phone or video sessions. Local participants in their first three months are not normally eligible for remote sessions.

If you miss a session and make it up within the same scheduling period, you will not be reported non-compliant. Missing without 24 hours' notice carries a $50 fee, payable before your next appointment.

Monday to Friday, 7:00 am to 4:30 pm.

Common examples:

• Missing a required test
• Not attending enough mutual support meetings
• Missing monitor sessions
• A non-negative test result
• Disclosing use or relapse
• Inappropriate behaviour toward Alliance, collection site or lab staff
• Not following any other term of your RPA

Alliance reports compliance and non-compliance to your designate. Your designate decides what happens next.

Testing attendance and results, mutual support attendance, monitor session attendance, any disclosure of use, and any custom terms in your RPA.

You will receive a text message on the days you are selected for testing. You no longer need to log in or call a check-in line. Keep your phone number up to date with your monitor.

Most participants get same-day notice and must attend the collection site no later than one hour before it closes. Your specific arrangement is confirmed at enrolment.

Test dates are randomly generated and can exceed 36 per year, depending on your recommendations. You might test once one month and four times the next.

A missed test is normally reported as critical non-compliance unless there is a valid, verifiable reason. It is treated like a positive because a test the next day cannot show what the original test would have, as many substances fall below cut-off levels within a day.

Monitoring is usually a condition of your employment, so employers normally make time for testing. Tell your monitor, who can work with your employer on a solution.

A false positive is extremely unlikely. Every non-negative screen is confirmed by laboratory testing, and a Medical Review Officer speaks with you to check for a legitimate explanation before anything is reported.

A documented legal process for collecting and handling specimens so there is no doubt that the sample tested is yours and has not been tampered with.

• Show government-issued photo ID
• Leave coats and bags outside, empty your pockets and remove hats
• Wash your hands
• Provide at least 45 mL of urine; if it is not enough you will wait, drink fluids and try again. Leaving before giving a sufficient sample is reported as non-compliance
• The collector records the temperature, splits and seals the sample, and you initial the seals and sign the form
• The sample stays in your sight until it is sealed and packaged

Collections are not observed unless you have been told otherwise. For a dual collection, the second sample is taken at least 40 minutes after the first.

If you dispute a positive result, the Medical Review Officer may offer to have the second sample tested at another laboratory, at your expense. Alcohol positives are not retested, because the alcohol marker degrades over time.

A Medical Review Officer is a licensed physician certified to review laboratory drug test results. The MRO decides whether a positive reflects substance use or has a legitimate medical explanation, and may interview you.

It measures breath alcohol concentration and takes your photo at the same time to confirm identity. Results upload wirelessly, and Alliance is alerted to missed or positive tests.

The device stores up to 100 tests and uploads them once you are back in coverage.

Yes, wherever you have a cellular or wireless connection. Participants have used it across Canada, the US, Mexico and Europe.

It protects you. It sets up a monitoring plan while you are away so you are not reported non-compliant for being unavailable.

We will create an Away Notification and monitoring plan at enrolment. Longer absences may require a fitness-to-return assessment when you come back.

No. 12-step groups are one option. Secular alternatives such as SMART Recovery, Refuge Recovery, LifeRing and others are accepted, provided the group's purpose is abstinence-based recovery from substance use disorder.

It will appear on your monthly progress report.