Fall 2021 (Volume 31, Number 3)

Raising Awareness and New Patient Resources

By Trish Barbato, President and CEO Arthritis Society

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It’s an exciting time at the Arthritis Society as we launched a bold new campaign to kick off Arthritis Awareness Month in September to bring much-needed awareness about the fire of arthritis.

I hope you’ll join us in raising awareness by setting the record straight whenever you hear “it’s just arthritis.”

And while we’re raising the alarm about the seriousness of arthritis, we’re continuing to develop high-quality resources for people living with the disease.

We’ve added some new “life hack” videos to our library. These videos show tools and tricks to help people navigate everyday activities more easily such as leisure time, working in the kitchen or getting dressed. If you haven’t already, we encourage you to share these with your patients. They can be found at arthritis.ca or through our YouTube channel.

In June, we released a report on wait times for joint replacement surgeries. We’re calling for provincial leadership on the issue and the creation of a Canadian wait times task force to ensure that wait times will be reduced permanently.

We also commissioned a study from the Arthritis Community Research Evaluation Unit that revealed 30% of people living with osteoarthritis were diagnosed before age 45 and the impact of the disease on them is, in many ways, more profound than in older adults.

As always, thank you for sharing our resources with your patients and be sure to watch for our awareness campaign. It’s time to be audacious about fighting the fire of arthritis.