Class­es for Caregivers

December 09, 2025

By: Noël Abra­ham, LSW and Kath­leen Bol­ger, Care­giv­er Specialists

Care­giv­ing takes a great deal of time and ener­gy. High lev­els of stress, anx­i­ety, and depres­sion are com­mon among care­givers, and it’s easy for care­givers to put their own needs to the side. To help care­givers man­age the stress that comes with care­giv­ing, KYC offers three cur­ricu­lum-based class­es which address care­giv­er burnout: Stress Busters, Pow­er­ful Tools, and Savvy Care­giv­er. All three class­es are evi­dence-based and research-based.

Stress Busters

Stress Busters is a nine-week class for those car­ing for some­one liv­ing with demen­tia. We prac­tice eight self-care tech­niques, includ­ing deep breath­ing, med­i­ta­tion, pos­i­tive imagery, mas­sage, art, aro­ma ther­a­py, jour­nal­ing, and music.

Research has shown sig­nif­i­cant improve­ment in care­givers’ health and vital­i­ty, and reduc­tions in anx­i­ety, anger, depres­sion, and per­ceived stress upon com­ple­tion of the Stress Busters class. The main quote the pro­gram empha­sizes is: ​‘Self-care is not a lux­u­ry, it is a necessity!’

Pow­er­ful Tools for Caregivers

Pow­er­ful Tools for Care­givers is a 6‑week, evi­dence-based class open to all infor­mal care­givers. Care­givers receive a man­u­al to keep and fol­low along with each week, a week­ly goal-set­ting sheet, and oth­er hand­outs. Top­ics include Com­mu­ni­cat­ing Effec­tive­ly in Chal­leng­ing Sit­u­a­tions, Learn­ing from our Emo­tions, Mas­ter­ing Care­giv­ing Tran­si­tions, and Mak­ing Tough Care­giv­ing Deci­sions, among others. 

One ran­dom-con­trolled tri­al showed that Pow­er­ful Tools reduced care­giv­er bur­den and depres­sive symp­toms, and increased care­giv­er self-effi­ca­cy. The care­givers in our class­es found it very ben­e­fi­cial while we learned and prac­ticed all the tools of the pro­gram togeth­er. Some com­ments our KYC care­givers wrote at the end of the class included: 

“I liked the most the tools for anger man­age­ment, self-care, and being assertive, to help me deal with oth­er con­trol­ling fam­i­ly mem­bers, like my sis­ter, work­ing on bet­ter com­mu­ni­ca­tion and the extra sup­port from you guys. I’m bet­ter at my self-con­trol and work on it dai­ly. It was all great and well-needed.”

“I found the class­es to be very use­ful. Care­giv­ing is phys­i­cal­ly and men­tal­ly chal­leng­ing. This class was very good in help­ing me to learn com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills nec­es­sary to lessen my stress with care­giv­ing for my moth­er and how to advo­cate for myself when I need help.”

Savvy Care­giv­er

Imag­ine a per­son liv­ing with demen­tia scream­ing at the loud­est vol­ume pos­si­ble ​“Stop it! Help! Help!” when you final­ly get them into the show­er, and a neigh­bor calls the police. Imag­ine your father, who is liv­ing with demen­tia, gets so agi­tat­ed that he uri­nates in inap­pro­pri­ate places in his home – any­where except the toi­let. Imag­ine that these kinds of stress behav­iors are a dai­ly occur­rence, and you’ll have a glimpse of what many care­givers go through when they’re car­ing for some­one liv­ing with demen­tia. Is it any won­der that care­givers feel anx­ious, depressed, and overwhelmed?

The good news is, there is help! Savvy Care­giv­er, a six-week, evi­dence-based class, offers instruc­tion on self-care, demen­tia, and the prac­ti­cal skills need­ed to address the stress behav­iors that can occur in peo­ple liv­ing with demen­tia. The class is a com­bi­na­tion of lec­tures, group activ­i­ties, and coach­ing, where stu­dents share the skills they’ve learned in the pre­vi­ous week’s class to get instruc­tor and stu­dent feedback.

Research has shown that care­givers who par­tic­i­pat­ed in Savvy Care­giv­er used bet­ter cop­ing strate­gies and tend­ed to be less anx­ious and depressed than care­givers who did not take the class. Per­sons liv­ing with demen­tia were pre­scribed few­er med­ica­tions used to address stress behav­iors after their care­givers com­plet­ed the Savvy Care­giv­er class than those whose care­givers did not com­plete Savvy Caregiver.

Car­ing for the Caregiver

How care­givers deal with the stress­es asso­ci­at­ed with care­giv­ing is crit­i­cal to their own well-being and the well-being of the per­son for whom they’re car­ing. The class­es that KYC’s Care­giv­er Resource Cen­ter offer are just one kind of resource we pro­vide to help care­givers to nav­i­gate the com­plex­i­ties of pro­vid­ing care. Please look out for our upcom­ing Stress Busters, Pow­er­ful Tools, and Savvy Care­giv­er class­es on KYC’s social media accounts, or call 847−524−8800 x124 to be put on our class wait list.

And remem­ber, when you take bet­ter care of your­self, you can be a more effec­tive caregiver. 

Ref­er­ences

Stress – Bust­ing Pro­gram for Care­givers Man­u­al — revised in 2019

Lewis, S.L., Min­er-Williams, D., Nubian, Al, Escamil­la, M.I., Black­well, P.H., Kret­zschmar, J.H., Areva­lo-Fle­chas, L.C., and Bon­ner, P.N. (2009, Jul-Aug) A stress-bust­ing pro­gram for fam­i­ly care­givers. Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Nurs­ing, 34(4): 151 – 9.

Effec­tive­ness of Pow­er­ful Tools for Care­givers on Care­giv­er Bur­den and on Care Recip­i­ent Behav­ioral and Psy­cho­log­i­cal Symp­toms of Demen­tia: A Ran­dom­ized Con­trolled Tri­al (Ter­rac­ciano et al., 2019 / pub­lished 2021)

Ken­neth W. Hep­burn, Mar­sha Lewis, Carey Wexler Sher­man, Jane Tor­na­tore, The Savvy Care­giv­er Pro­gram: Devel­op­ing and Test­ing a Trans­portable Demen­tia Fam­i­ly Care­giv­er Train­ing Pro­gram, The Geron­tol­o­gist, Vol­ume 43, Issue 6, Decem­ber 2003, Pages 908 – 915, https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​9​3​/​g​e​r​o​n​t​/​4​3​.​6.908

Paul­son, D., McClure, N., Whar­ton, T., Gen­dron, E., Allen, Q., & Irfan, H. (2024). Care­giv­er Pre­pared­ness: A Ther­a­peu­tic Mech­a­nism and Mod­er­at­ing Fac­tor on Out­comes for the Savvy Care­giv­er Pro­gram. Clin­i­cal geron­tol­o­gist, 47(5), 870 – 884. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​8​0​/​0​7​3​1​7​1​1​5​.​2​0​2​3​.​2​2​42357

Sepe-Mon­ti M, Vana­core N, Bar­torel­li L, Tognetti A, Giu­bilei F. The Savvy Care­giv­er Pro­gram: A Probe Mul­ti­cen­ter Ran­dom­ized Con­trolled Pilot Tri­al in Care­givers of Patients Affect­ed by Alzheimer’s Dis­ease. Jour­nal of Alzheimer’s Dis­ease. 2016;54(3):1235 – 1246. doi:10.3233/JAD-160235

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