Treatment and support

Providing alternative options to volatile substance use (VSU) or other drugs, especially for young people, is an important way to reduce the contact that young people have with sniffing volatile substances[362]. These can include programs such as Midnight Basketball Australia, a social inclusion program which helps young people aged 12-18 years to identify and embrace positive opportunities.

There are currently no medicines available to help people who are experiencing addiction to sniffing inhalants. However, there are medicines that can help to address some of the symptoms of sniffing, such as depression and nervousness (agitation) [23503].

Counselling can be a good way to help people with volatile substance use issues, and can include techniques like:

• brief intervention
• motivational interviewing
• general relapse prevention counselling [23503].

There are some people who might not be ready to stop sniffing. For these people, it is important to reduce the harms that are linked to VSU until they might be ready to change [23503]. Some suggestions for reducing harms when sniffing solvents include:

• staying away from dangerous places like roads or fires
• sniffing in open places so there is lots of oxygen for the lungs
• sniffing with sober people, so they can call for help if needed
• asking for low aromatic fuel (LAF) to be stocked.