What a relapse prevention plan is
The plan turns what the client has learned in treatment into something they can use on a bad day without you in the room. It's written in the client's words, kept short enough to read in a minute, and specific: a named bar, a named friend, a phone number, not "avoid triggers" and "reach out for support."
Most plans separate a lapse, a single use or slip, from a relapse, a return to the old pattern. Planning for a lapse in advance gives the client a next step other than "I've blown it," which is often the thought that turns one drink into a week.
Relapse prevention plan vs safety plan vs treatment plan
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Relapse prevention plan (this template) | Keep recovery or remission going | Mid to late treatment and at discharge |
| Get through a suicidal crisis safely | Whenever suicide risk is identified |
| Set goals and interventions for treatment | At intake, updated through treatment |
| Hand over care at the end of an episode | At discharge, often with the relapse plan attached |
If a client has both a substance use problem and suicide risk, they need both documents. The relapse plan can point to the safety plan in its crisis section, but it doesn't replace it.
Sections of the plan
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| The client's own reasons, in their words |
| Thoughts, feelings and behaviors that came before past relapses |
| Specific people, places, times and feelings |
| One or two concrete actions for each high-risk situation |
| Names and numbers, including a sponsor or peer, and when to call each |
| The first three things to do in the 24 hours after a slip |
| 988, local emergency number, and the safety plan if there is one |
| Who reviews the plan, and when |
Relapse prevention plan example
Owen is a fictional 51‑year‑old electrician in outpatient treatment for alcohol dependence, in remission (F10.21). His last drink was seven months ago, after a hospital admission for withdrawal. He wrote this plan with his counselor in session 14. All details are invented.
Reasons for staying well: "My granddaughter knows me sober. I want to keep my license. I sleep through the night now."
Early warning signs: Skipping my Tuesday meeting. Saying "one won't hurt" in my head. Getting short with my wife about small things. Driving the long way home past the bar on Route 9.
High-risk situations: Friday after work when the crew goes out. Being home alone on a weekend when my wife visits her sister. Back pain flaring at the end of a long job. The anniversary of my brother's death in March.
Coping responses: Fridays: tell the crew I have a meeting and go to the 5:30 one. Weekends alone: plan Saturday with my sponsor before my wife leaves. Back pain: take the stretch break at noon and talk to my doctor rather than reach for a drink. March: tell my counselor in February and book an extra session.
Support contacts: Sponsor, Ray, any time. Wife, Diane. Counselor, during office hours. Tuesday meeting group text.
If I lapse: Pour out what's left and leave the place I'm in. Call Ray the same day, even if it's late. Tell my counselor at the next session or call the office the next morning. One drink is a slip to learn from, not a reason to keep going.
Crisis contacts: 988 by call or text. 911 for withdrawal symptoms such as shaking, confusion or seeing things, given my history.
Review: With my counselor every four weeks, and at discharge.
Notice how specific Owen's version is. "Route 9" and "the 5:30 meeting" are things he can act on. A plan full of general advice reads well and gets ignored.
Blank relapse prevention plan template
Fill this in with the client, in their words, and give them a copy they can keep on their phone.
Name: Date written: Clinician:
My reasons for staying well:
My early warning signs: thoughts, feelings, behaviors.
My high-risk situations: people, places, times, feelings.
What I'll do instead: one or two actions for each situation above.
People I can call: name, number, when to call them.
If I slip: my first three steps in the next 24 hours.
In a crisis: 988, 911, my safety plan if I have one.
Next review date and who reviews it:
Adapting the plan for depression
For a client whose depression has lifted, the same sections work with different content. Warning signs might be sleeping past 9 on workdays, cancelling plans twice in a week, or a PHQ‑9 above an agreed number. Coping responses are the things that helped during treatment, and the review date is usually tied to the times the client has relapsed before, such as winter or the weeks after a job change.
In ICD‑10‑CM, recurrent major depressive disorder has its own remission codes: F33.41 for partial remission and F33.42 for full remission. For a client still in active treatment, see the F33.1 code page.
Coding remission for substance use
The FY2027 ICD‑10‑CM tabular list puts alcohol use disorder, moderate or severe, in early remission and in sustained remission all under one code: F10.21, alcohol dependence, in remission. ICD‑10‑CM doesn't separate early from sustained remission, so if that distinction matters clinically, record it in the note. Active moderate or severe alcohol use disorder is F10.20, and alcohol abuse in remission has its own code, F10.11.
Common mistakes
- Writing the plan for the client instead of with them. If the words aren't theirs, they won't recognize their own warning signs in it.
- Generic coping lists. "Exercise" and "call a friend" need a when and a who.
- No lapse section. Without one, a single slip often feels like proof the plan failed.
- Never reviewing it. High-risk situations change as life does; date the plan and revisit it.
- Leaving out medical risk. If the client has had withdrawal seizures or delirium, the crisis section should say when to get emergency care.
Confidentiality: HIPAA and 42 CFR Part 2
The plan you file is part of the client's record under HIPAA. If you work in a federally assisted substance use disorder program, its records are also covered by 42 CFR Part 2, which sets its own consent rules for disclosing them. Before sending a copy of the plan to a sponsor, an employer or another provider, check which rules apply and get the client's written consent.
The copy the client takes home is theirs. Talk with them about where they'll keep it, especially if the people they live with don't know about their treatment.
Drafting relapse prevention plans with Twofold
When you build the plan in session, Twofold drafts it from the conversation in the client's own words. Set the sections above up as a custom template, then edit the draft with the client before you both sign off on it.
Safety plan for mental health template, substance use assessment form template, treatment plan template, discharge planning template, action plan template and daily mood log template.
Reviewed and updated October 2026.
