How to Be a Caregiver for Someone With Arthritis

Know your loved one’s arthritis management plan

Treatment can include medications, physical and occupational therapy, lifestyle changes and, sometimes, surgery. To understand it all, it helps to join your loved one for medical appointments, doctors say.

“Whenever I see a new patient, I’m very happy when there’s a spouse or a significant other or [an adult] child with the patient,” Huffstutter says. A caregiver can help fill in details that people in pain might forget or minimize, he adds. Huffstutter remembers one man who said he had no trouble putting on his shoes and socks. His wife clarified that it was because she did it for him.

Learn about arthritis medications

For osteoarthritis, the main drug options are standard painkillers, such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen. Some people get prescription painkillers. Steroid injections sometimes offer temporary relief.

“Unfortunately, there aren’t any medicines to necessarily stop osteoarthritis from happening or from progressing,” Edens says.

But for inflammatory forms of arthritis, such as RA, Edens says, “I have medicines that can decrease the inflammation that’s going on and prevent further damage from happening.”

Those medications are known as DMARDs, or disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. They suppress immune system activity and include inexpensive prescription pills that have been around for decades, as well as pricier drugs called biologics. The biologics target specific molecules, cells and pathways involved in inflammation and joint damage. They’re given as injections, IV infusions or pills.

About half of patients do just fine on older, cheaper DMARDs such as methotrexate, Edens says.

While biologic costs are high, “all these medicines are very well covered by insurance or by copay assistance,” says Nilanjana Bose, M.D., a rheumatologist at Lonestar Rheumatology in Houston. “I have not yet had a patient who has not been able to [access] these medicines due to cost.”

Gout also is treated with painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs and sometimes with medicines that lower levels of uric acid, according to Mayo Clinic.

Consider occupational and physical therapy

If your loved one struggles with everyday tasks, from cooking to brushing their teeth, an occupational therapist (OT) can help. “Our entire job is about helping you function better in everyday life,” says Cheryl Crow, a Seattle-area OT who has rheumatoid arthritis and hosts the Arthritis Life Podcast. OTs are experts in daily habits and gadgets that can make life easier, she says. Something as simple as learning to hold a mug in two hands or putting foam tubing on a toothbrush handle can make a big difference, she says.

A physical therapist (PT) can show your loved one how to get stronger and regain movement in stiff joints, with exercises that are safe for them, Edens says. Physical therapy also helps people preparing for or recovering from joint replacement surgery, she adds.

A caregiver who comes along for these appointments can learn a lot, the experts say.

Mullinax says he used to videotape his wife’s PT sessions to help her do her exercises correctly at home.

Make the home safer and easier to navigate

When Lara Manuela Austin Shoop, 55, a ceramics artist in Sonoma, California, was teaming with her brother and husband to care for her father in the last year of his life, she says they did all they could to make his condo safer for a man with debilitating osteoarthritis. They pulled up the rugs he might trip on, put a riser on his toilet, added grab bars in the bathroom and bought him several different shower stools until they found one that worked.

Lara Manuela Austin Shoop with her dad Eugene (Gene) Dale Austin on her wedding day in 1998.

Courtesy Austin Shoop

But his favorite device, she says, was the simple grabber tool he used to get objects from his perch on the sofa.

Crow says other good household tweaks include replacing door and faucet knobs with easier-to-use levers, and putting essential kitchen items between shoulder and hip level.

A physical therapist or other expert can check your home for safety and suggest improvements, Edens says. You can ask your doctor or your Area Agency on Aging for referrals.

Support a joint-healthy lifestyle

Caregivers can play “a big role” in encouraging people with arthritis to be active, eat well and make other joint-healthy choices, Bose says.

Physical activity is the best way to control osteoarthritis and is important “no matter what type of arthritis they have,” Edens says. Low-impact activities like walking, biking and swimming can safely ease arthritis pain and improve joint function for most people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Diet matters too. High-sugar diets are “very pro-inflammatory,” Bose says. And studies suggest a Mediterranean diet — focusing on fruits, vegetables, olive oil, nuts, whole grains and fish, and low in red meat and sugar — can reduce inflammation and even help people take fewer pain medications, Edens says. That diet is also good for your heart, she notes.

People with gout need a more specific diet that limits foods high in substances called purines, as well as alcohol and sugar, Edens says. Purines, which increase uric acid production, are high in red meat and some seafoods, including anchovies, shellfish, sardines and tuna, according to Mayo Clinic.

Staying active and eating well can help control weight, Huffstutter says. Excess weight makes joints hurt more, leading to a vicious cycle, he says: “The more you hurt, the less you move.” That, he says, can lead to more weight gain and more joint damage.

Smoking also can make arthritis worse, Huffstutter says: “It’s well known that patients who smoke with an inflammatory arthritis like rheumatoid do less well than the patients that don’t.”

Provide emotional support

Crow says she often hears about loved ones who say things like “You just need to push through … it’s just arthritis.”

That’s not helpful, she says. “People are not faking being in pain” or feeling exhausted, she says. Accept that “you’ll never know what it’s like to be in someone else’s body,” and offer them your support when they struggle, Crow urges. That kind of support can reduce a loved one’s experience of pain, she says.

Shoop says her best advice is to be patient. “Give yourself a lot more time than you think you’ll need, like if you have an appointment,” she says. Getting showered, dressed and into a vehicle can be hard for someone like her late father, she says. “When you’re rushing without allowing for that extra time, it just puts stress on everybody.”