Family torn apart by the violent episodes of the son

They are the courageous steps of a desperate family to protect themselves and take control of a torn life.

And they saw Liz and Sean Whelan make the toughest decisions to take care of Max, their 12 year old son, while protecting their family from a condition that no one between they do not control.

Max suffers from severe nonverbal autism and an undiagnosed intellectual disability, rendering him of an unpredictable violence and prone to destructive collapses that turned the family home into a war zone .

The family's difficult situation became public earlier this year when Sean's big sister, actor Nicky Whelan and her other sister Katie Brannaghan launched a GoFundMe page to help the family avoid the family. unthinkable: let Max take care of the rest of the family from harm.

Launched $ 80,000 to help the family get the help Max needs, Nicky Whelan said the heartbreaking situation was tearing the family apart.

On Sunday, they will unveil their heartbreaking experience on Channel 9 60 Minutes .

As Max progresses through puberty, he develops an "inexplicable" force that results in violent collapses.

Max lives with his parents and three siblings, Thomas, 13, Harrison, 9, and Georgia, 7, Mount Martha, on the Mornington Peninsula. In May, Liz told news.com.au that his frequent outbursts of violence – which are out of his control – meant that the son he desperately loves is also scared for the rest of the family.

Max often needs to be physically restrained so as not to hurt himself or hurt anyone else.

"Our whole family lives locked up," Liz told news.com.au

"We have locks at every window and at every door of the house, he will try to escape whenever he can."

The family lives with constant anxiety, she said, and has learned to avoid certain trigger words like the word "no," which can lead to a merger in which anyone like Max could become a target.

"Usually I am the one who gets touched, but he now understands that if he hits the dog or his little sister then we all react and he likes to have a reaction," Liz said.

Max's siblings now have coded locks on the doors of their room so that they have a safe place to hide.

The GoFundMe campaign was set up in the hope that the Whelans could find an alternative to the impossible – by abandoning Max and taking care to protect the rest of the family.

Liz said that they knew it was only a matter of time before Max seriously hurt himself or anyone else. But, with no facilities or government options available to meet his needs on an ongoing basis, they had to come up with an alternative plan.

The goal is to turn the family home into a personal care facility that will meet Max's specific needs.