By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
NOT many people could understand the ‘‘long haul’’ faced by Diane Bellette. A single mother, she has cared for her middle-aged son John Spencer through his mental illness for 25 years.
It was only after 21 of those years — brutal, lonely times negotiating the mental health system — that John finally ‘‘turned the corner’’.
Next week, Dandenong Casey Cardinia Mental Health Network will host a forum for families and carers of mentally ill people to discuss their challenges.
It is intended to be an ‘‘in-depth’’ problem-solving discussion of behavioural issues such as self-harm, aggression, alcohol and drugs, and gaining independent life skills.
Diane, who is taking part in the forum, says speaking at such events gives a reason for her and her son’s struggles.
The event was vital for carers to realise they weren’t on their own, she said.
Soon after John was first diagnosed with schizophrenia at 21, Diane devoted herself to being his full-time carer. She had brought her ill son in off the street after he walked out of the residential care home he shared with alcoholics and drug addicts several weeks earlier.
‘‘He had no possessions, just the clothes he was in. He hadn’t had a shower for weeks,’’ she said.
‘‘It was distressing to see your child smelling like he was and ill like he was. If I hadn’t taken him in he would have been dead. There was no option.’’
The fact John had an illness was distressing enough, Diane said. The public hospital system became an added frustration. She felt John was stigmatised within the system; they didn’t care.
Her son, loaded on a cocktail of prescribed drugs, grew increasingly idle inside her home. John ballooned to 150 kilos, was sleeping 20 hours a day and on the verge of type-2 diabetes. He had tried to kill himself with an overdose but had got too ill to think about doing it again, Diane said.
Four years ago, the family went ‘‘outside the system’’ and visited the family GP.
The doctor suggested John, then 41, cut down on prescribed drugs and embark on a regimen of healthy food and exercise.
He has since run half-marathons and worked for the first time, serving at Eastern Region Mental Health Association’s Madcap Cafe.
John considers himself ‘‘pretty lucky’’.
‘‘Mum’s pretty special — she’s been there the whole way through the dark times and the good times,’’ he says. He couldn’t see his way out of a ‘‘dark hell’’ for a long time.
But now he wants to give hope to others, doing work with mental health bodies such as SANE and ERMHA.
‘‘Just hold on and don’t give up. Use your resources through the services and don’t give in. It will turn around,’’ John said.
The forum is at Brentwood Park Community Centre, 21A Bemersyde Drive, Berwick, on May 28 from 10.30am-2.30pm. Morning tea and lunch will be provided. RSVP Lindy on 9076 6204 by tomorrow (Tuesday).
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