Mary Alexander: Hello! I'm Mary Alexander from Home Instead Senior Care, and today I'm talking about how caregivers can help their loved ones cope with arthritis.

Caring for a senior loved one suffering from arthritis is a tough responsibility. Too often, caregivers feel overwhelmed, isolated, and trapped. It is the intent of the Arthritis Foundation to help ease this burden by offering topical advice and resources for your use.

At arthritis.

org, you can get more information on how to talk with your parents, assess their level of independence, work with health professionals, help manage medication, and much more. The varying forms of arthritis limit everyday activities such as walking, dressing, and bathing for more than seven million Americans.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said arthritis is strongly associated with major depression, most probably through its role in creating functional limitations. Easing anxiety, reducing emotional distress or depression, and getting better sleep may help reduce pain, improve the ability to enjoy life again, increase the ability to cope and improve physiological well-being.

The main goal of chronic pain management according to the American Pain Society as a caregiver, learn all you can about pain management. You can also act as an advocate for your senior loved one by helping him/her to keep an ongoing pain log. This log will prove a valuable tool in gauging their progress and assessing the success of treatment.

The Arthritis Foundation lists a number of psychotherapy techniques to help tune out or turn down arthritis pain, including hypnosis, biofeedback, and cognitive behavioral therapy.

Support groups are another option and have been beneficial to many living with chronic disease. As the caregiver, you need to make sure you take care of yourself as well. It's incredibly difficult to watch someone you love suffer from a painful condition that never ends. Therefore, be sure to get the rest and support you need. Valuable caregiver information can be found at CaregiverStress.

com.

The Arthritis Foundation, the only national not-for-profit organization that supports to more than 100 types of arthritis and related conditions, offers information and tools on their website at arthritis.

org.

You can also learn more by checking out their other videos on arthritis, including what the Arthritis Foundation is doing to help.