The Alberta government is ending an online tool meant to help Albertans navigating addition treatment and recovery in the province.
The My Recovery Plan app was launched in 2021 and was designed to be a health record software system, collecting the personal health data of people in recovery to track individual progress.
It also monitors the outcomes of programs and organizations offering recovery services.
The app is free to use, and clients can register through any publicly-funded residential addiction service provider. Clients then complete questionnaires to provide the necessary information, but harm reduction advocates say the app serves as a barrier more than a tool for those trying to access recovery services.
“Substance use is highly stigmatized and every barrier you put up will keep them from accessing services,” said Petra Schulz, co-founder of Moms Stop the Harm.
“Sharing your most intimate and personal information about your substance use, like when was the last time you used, what are you using, who’s helping you, those kinds of things, would scare people. Nobody wants their substance use on their health records.”
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The Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction says the app will be decommissioned starting in 2026, with data management being moved to a government developed and managed system.
“As the Alberta recovery model continues to grow and expand, the data systems used to support the model also needed to evolve,” the province stated, adding it heard the app didn’t fit all the needs of people using it.
Despite the news that the app is on its way out, Schulz says there are still concerns around privacy and data management. My Recovery Plan was developed by BC-based Last Door Recovery Society, and she says there are now questions about the information already gathered, who owns it and how it is being protected.
“You get emails from Google and other large companies about data breeches,” said Schulz. “I don’t know how well equipped this private organization is in keeping people’s data secure.”
According to government data, the sole-sourced contract was worth $2 million, money Schulz says could have better been spent elsewhere.
“That was $2 million that could have gone to harm reduction which is what we need to keep people alive so they can find recovery and evidence-based treatment programs,” argued Schulz. “There are a lot of places could spend $2 million and I see this as money wasted.”
Harm reduction advocate Euan Thompson filed freedom of information requests related to the app. He notes the Alberta auditor general is assessing provincial processes to ensure opioid addiction-related programs and services are effective for Albertans and that processes exist to monitor and report on program outcomes.
However, he’s concerned the province doesn’t have a good track record when it comes to recovery data management, referencing the Digital Overdose Response System.
“It was years before they even shared the most basic data from that app,” said Thompson. “And the data was not promising about how well it had performed.”
Thompson says what is needed more is transparency around recovery outcomes for people living, and organizations operating, in Alberta, and with this change that may not happen for many years.
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