Nationally, there were 24,069 clients who had been diverted into alcohol and other drug treatment, comprising 24% of all clients. Diversion clients were younger and more likely to be male than non-diversion clients, and less likely to be Indigenous. Diversion treatment episodes were about twice as likely to involve cannabis as the principal drug of concern compared with episodes for non-diversion clients. Police diversion episodes had less intensive treatment types compared with court diversion episodes.

Publication table of contents:
• Introduction
• Are diversion clients a distinct client group among AOD clients?
• Are diversion clients different from non-diversion clients?
• Demographics
• Are there differences between clients subject to police diversion and to court diversion?
• Key issues for diversion policy
• Data quality issues
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• References
• More information and related publications