Former Warrnambool man shining a light on experiences of children living with a parent with mental health issues

Joel Kleber's mother Anne had bipolar one and was in and out of psychiatric treatment centres since he was 7.

Ms Kleber was a single mum living in Perth, where she had no family when she experienced a manic episode and was admitted to hospital.

Mr Kleber, 33, and his younger sister Juliet Douglas were at school when police arrived and took them out of class.

"We had to go to the principal's office and they said 'your mum's in hospital'."

Mr Kleber remembers no one told him why she was there, when she would be home or when he and his sister would be allowed to see her.

"We got taken in the back of the divvy van to a human services office in Perth," he said.

A couple of hours later they were sent to stay with a foster carer.

Mr Kleber said he and his sibling had the next day off school but returned the following day, none the wiser about what was wrong with their mother.

He has a podcast called The Lived Experience in which he speaks to people about their experience with mental health issues.

Mr Kleber said he also wanted to use the platform to raise awareness about the high number of children who lived with a parent with a mental illness.

He said statistics showed about 23 per cent of children in Victoria lived with a parent with a mental health issue.

Mr Kleber said when he was growing up there was very little support for children living in these homes.

He and his sister were rarely given any information on their mother's health and no one even tried to explain what bipolar one was.

Mr Kleber said he lived in a home where disruptions to their routine due to his mother's condition was the norm.

"Often I would get in trouble at school because something had happened at home but I couldn't tell them mum had bipolar because she didn't want people to know," he said.

Mr Kleber said bipolar was a very difficult condition to manage, with people deciding to go off their medication if they felt well.

In addition to that, he and his sister quickly learnt the signs that a manic episode was approaching.

But there was nothing they could do.

"She would have to get to a stage where she was so erratic that the police would have to come," Mr Kleber said.

There was a level of embarrassment associated with it, with neighbours often finding his mother in a manic state and calling police for help.

Mr Kleber said he and his sister spent a lot of time in psychiatric wards visiting their mother.

He said this was confronting as a child because they would be introduced to people suffering from a range of health issues.

Mr Kleber said he believed there needed to be more funding to support children who had a parent with a mental illness.

He said he was forced to become an adult at a very young age.

The family eventually moved to Warrnambool, where Ms Kleber is from, and Mr Kleber and his sister would stay with family when their mother was unwell.

In later years, Mr Kleber became his mother's medical guardian.

Sadly, she passed away at the age of 63 after a short battle with progressive supranuclear palsy in February.

Mr Kleber said there were very few organisations dedicated to helping children living in similar situations to what he did.

However, one that is doing just that is the Satellite Foundation in Victoria.

It provides online and one-on-one support to children who have a parent or carer with a mental illness.

Despite the challenging times in his life, Mr Kleber said he wouldn't change anything about this childhood.

"It taught me a lot about resilience and working hard," he said.

However, he believes he would have benefited greatly from more support and is passionate about ensuring people in the same situation as him receive the help they need.

Mr Kleber is keen to hear from children who lived with a parent or carer for a mental health issue for his podcast.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Listen to our new series The Folkie Podcast, only on Spotify.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:

Now just one tap with our new app: Digital subscribers now have the convenience of faster news, right at your fingertips with The Standard: