DAPHNE, Ala. — Caregivers of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia patients next month can learn — and take a load off — when the City of Daphne and The Area Agency on Aging present the first of two six-session information and training programs.

The sessions — to help caregivers cope with a lifestyle devoted to their patients — will be held over six Thursdays: April 10 to May 15 and May 29 to July 3, according to Gwen Gay, regional coordinator for Alabama CARES, an eldercare advocacy initiative affiliated with the Mobile-based agency and the Alabama Department of Senior Services. CARES stands for Caregiver Assistance with Resources, Education and Services. The training sessions will be held at the Daphne Senior Center,

“Primarily, caregiver burnout” will take focus of the sessions, Gay said. “It’s just a constant, twenty-four-seven responsibility to care for someone with Alzheimer’s disease.”

Alzheimer’s is a progressive, irreversible neurological disorder. Most people who have it are older than 65, but the disease can strike in the 40s and 50s. Symptoms include gradual memory loss, impairment of judgment, disorientation, personality change, difficulty in learning and loss of language skills; no cure is known.

“In Alzheimer’s, the brain is dying and the person regresses and is unable to perform the activities of daily living,” Gay said. “As the person loses their functioning, it becomes more and more stressful to provide the daily and ongoing care for this person. Plus the caregivers are really isolated … it just becomes overwhelming.”

Most caregivers are family members — mostly women, though some men help — which means they need proper training, for education and stamina, Gay said.

“We’ll be talking about caring for the caregiver; because if they break down, there’s no one to care for their family member,” she said.

Staffers of Dr. Richard Powers, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, under the Dementia Education and Training Act, will teach on the following issues:

The program is based on the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer’s Caregiver Health program, according to organizers. The REACH initiative — begun in 1995 by the National Institutes of Health — aimed to develop and test new ways to help families manage the daily activities and stresses of caring for people with Alzheimer’s or a related disorder, according to the NIH Web site.

What kinds of stresses are associated with eldercare?

“Sometimes it’s aggressive behavior, sometimes wandering behavior, noncompliance; just being difficult and hard to deal with on a constant, day-to-day basis,” Gay said.

And what does she hope the two sessions will provide?

“Some suggestions, some insight, because a lot of times people don’t really understand the disease of dementia and Alzheimer’s, so we’re gonna have some specially trained people coming in to educate people on dementia, what it is, what to expect and how to deal with some of those behaviors that may be upsetting to some family members.”

The point for caregivers, Gay said, is “they’re not in this alone.”

The classes are funded through a grant from the U.S. Administration on Aging and the Alabama Department of Senior Services, she said.

“The classes will be at no charge for the caregiver that attends the training,” Gay said.

“If we can get 10 or 15 people from Baldwin County that can get information from it, we’ll be successful,” Daphne Senior Center Coordinator Mary Jensen said. “Probably 150 people … need it, but their patient might be too sick for them to come.”

Stand-in caregivers will come to the rescue, Gay said. Adult day respite or in-home care will be provided for patients.

“We have a licensed nursing agency, a sitter service, that will go in and sit with the person; help them with some personal care, like some bathing and grooming, and keep them occupied and supervised,” Gay said.

Patients who take part in the respite can snack, lunch and work on arts and crafts or other activities at the Daphne Senior Center, she said.

“As an added bonus, participants may choose to allow their loved ones to remain in the professionally supervised respite programs on those (session) days until 4 p.m. at no charge,” Gay said, adding that caregivers then could run personal errands and have truly free time. Classes tentatively would run from 8 a.m. to noon.

Pre-registration for training sessions, along with respite and in-home programs, is mandatory; deadline is March 17. Call Gay with the Area Agency on Aging at 251-706-4609 or 1-800-AGE-LINE for details.

(Staff Writer Jessica Jones contributed to this report.)