Broken Hill local Anne Ryan says her daughter Brooke is always on her mind — a swirl of thoughts both positive and horrible — from the moment she wakes up each day until she goes to bed.
On February 2 this year Anne found Brooke dead in her bedroom with a tea towel and a deodorant can underneath her. She was just 16 years old.
While the coroner has not yet established the cause of death, Anne believes her daughter passed away from chroming — a method of abusing inhalants.
She says every day since Brooke's death has been an absolute nightmare.
"I actually don't know what to do every day. I sit and look at her photos and reminisce what would've, could've, should've, but I can't," she said.
Anne says Brooke was very well known in the community and had a natural sporting talent as an avid netballer, basketballer, including South Australian state competitions, and footballer.
But she says Brooke was suffering from anxiety too.
"She was working really, really hard to work through that with myself and also with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) here in Broken Hill," Anne said.
"She was certainly on the right track. She'd done some hard yards but she knew that she needed help and she was getting the support that she needed to help continue living the life that she was."
More information sought
After that tragic February day, Anne is determined to find out more about chroming, which is something she had never heard about until Brooke's death.
She hopes schools are teaching students about the dangers of it.
"Are we keeping up with the 21st century in the way that children now resort to using different methods and different ways to make themselves feel a certain way that they think they're not feeling?" she said.
In her quest for further information, Anne reached out to her friend and local Lifeline CEO, Scott Hammond, about what data existed locally about chroming.
Mr Hammond says that raised the question within Lifeline about whether they are gathering enough information on inhalants, and what it looks like when individuals present to them.
"Our counsellors do a fantastic job. We've asked them: Can they reach out to their colleagues? Can they start having conversations?" he said.
"Same with management. Can we start to find out from our key stakeholders about what information we have out there that may be of use for us to be better prepared?"
The New South Wales Education Standards Authority said age-appropriate drug education was part of a mandatory curriculum for students from kindergarten to year 10, as well as the Life Ready course for senior students.
A spokesperson says this includes education on inhalants, with the kindergarten to year 10 syllabus providing opportunities for students to learn about both illicit and non-illicit drugs.
They say if a school identifies an issue with a particular drug in its community, such as inhalants, the curriculum can allow it to deliver relevant drug education programs.
Calls about 'chroming' increasing
Ingrid Berling is a clinical toxicologist with the New South Wales Poisons Information Centre, which helps identify products causing poisonings in the community.
Dr Berling says there had been around a 12 per cent increase in calls to the centre about chroming over the past decade.
"Another 20 per cent of those calls were for children 15 to 19 years of age."
Dr Berling says they also looked at the coronial database around chroming.
She says there are at least four deaths a year involving hydrocarbon inhalation.
"The median age of death in that age bracket is 23 years of age," she said.
"Most of the data that we've been able to identify just really highlights that this is a younger cohort of patients — a vulnerable group, who might not have knowledge of what they're doing.
Invoice concerns
Anne says she also wants to bring greater attention to the language used by organisations when writing to people dealing with grief.
She says several weeks after Brooke's death she received an invoice from New South Wales Ambulance for the services they provided when attending to Brooke that day.
She says the invoice, which the ABC has seen, was addressed to the 'estate of Brooke Ryan' and included no words offering condolences or commiserations.
"In times of grief, the little things can tip you over the edge," she said.
"Organisations, governments need to get on top of these things. We're human. We all have emotions.
NSW Ambulance says it offered condolences to Anne, and spoke to her in February to offer their sympathies.
A spokesperson says they had offered to have the invoice reviewed and confirmed that the invoice had closed with no payment required.
They suggest anyone who had received an invoice from them and was having difficulty paying or disputed the charge could apply to have a fee review on compassionate or hardship grounds.
