Evaluating the health, crime and system impacts of the South Australian Police Drug Diversion Initiative - a 20-year study

This is a PhD Enterprise Scholarship involving Flinders University and Drug and Alcohol Services South Australia to evaluate the health, crime and system impacts of the South Australian Police Drug Diversion Initiative (PDDI). The PDDI has operated as a joint initiative of SA Health and SA Police since 2001, in the aim of diverting offenders for health assessment, brief intervention and/or treatment instead of criminal sanction. This project will provide the first comprehensive evaluation of this program and any changes post recent legislative reforms. Specifically the project will a) analyse 20 years of PDDI data held by SA Health: to identify changes in client profiles, program compliance and public health and crime outcomes, particularly post the legislative changes; b) undertake targeted qualitative research with clients and stakeholders to look at other impacts of the legislative changes, including the flow on effects of diverted clients on the South Australian alcohol and other drug treatment and criminal justice systems; and c) identify any reforms that may be required to the PDDI program.

This PhD Enterprise Scholarship will be jointly supervised by Associate Professor Caitlin Hughes – Criminologist and Drug Policy Researcher in the College of Business, Government and Law and Professor Jacqueline Bowden, Director of the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction, College of Public Health and Medicine. The industry partner is Drug and Alcohol Services South Australia - the lead government agency overseeing the SA Alcohol and Other Drug Strategy (in partnership with SA Police). The industry partner will provide data, a supervisor and a three month internship for the student at DASSA.