What is mental health diversion?

Mental health diversion is a type of diversion.

Mental health diversion involves a way of resolving or dealing with criminal charges in a manner that doesn’t involve a guilty plea or a trial. Usually an accused person will have to take responsibility for their actions. Just as mental health courts operate in many different ways, mental health diversion varies from courthouse to courthouse. Mental health diversion usually involves seeing a doctor regularly, taking medication etc. As with other forms of diversion, it is the Crown who determines whether or not a matter will qualify for diversion. The Crown may decide that the circumstances of a case are too serious to offer diversion.

The accused’s lawyer (or duty counsel) may try to convince the Crown to offer diversion, but the decision is always the Crown’s. The judge does not decide which charges or matters qualify for mental health diversion.