More offenders than average in far west New South Wales are successfully completing a drug and alcohol diversion program run through the courts.

Most local courts across NSW can send defendants to the Magistrates Early Referral Into Treatment program, known as MERIT.

MERIT sees clinicians provide one-on-one drug and alcohol abuse counselling to defendants while they are on bail, which the magistrate can then take into account in sentencing.

The co-ordinator of the MERIT program in Broken Hill and Wilcannia, Peter Clottu, said 80 per cent of offenders referred to the program successfully complete it, compared to the state average of just 65 per cent.

Mr Clottu said the success of the program in the far west may be because it also included counselling for alcohol abuse.

"It may be our remote location [or] maybe the fact that we do alcohol and most MERITs don't," Mr Clottu said.

"Most MERITs stick to illicit substances [and] we are one of the few that include alcohol in our portfolio," he said.

"We see more people with alcohol problems than all other drugs combined ... the elephant in the room is alcohol."

MERIT has been running in Broken Hill for more than a decade, and deals with around 30 people in a three-month period, compared to around 12 a year ago, made possible because of an additional clinician.

"We've been able to expand our services quite dramatically, and that includes outreaching to clients in Menindee and Wilcannia," Mr Clottu said.

"Prior to having two clinicians it was a matter of those clients having to make their way into Broken Hill, so that involved a lot of time and expense for them," he said.

Offenders can be referred to MERIT by the court, police or they can elect to refer themselves, and completion of the program can be made a bail condition.

"We're getting an increase in self-referrals and that's word of mouth, family members, people coming in off the street," Mr Clottu said.