Arthritis is a hundred small obstacles
Not one big one. It is the jar that will not open, the button that takes four minutes, the basket of wet laundry that cannot be carried upstairs, and the shoes that have become a negotiation.
Individually each is trivial. Together they are why someone stops cooking properly, stops changing the bed, and stops going out.
Take the tasks, not the independence
The point of this service is narrow and deliberate: hand over the specific jobs that hurt, and keep everything else.
Most people we support this way are entirely capable of running their own lives. They need someone else’s grip strength for twenty minutes, not someone to take over. Our caregivers are told plainly which side of that line the work sits on.
Flares change the week, not the plan
Arthritis does not run at a constant level, and a schedule built for a good week is useless in a bad one.
We would rather set up a steady visit that keeps the heavy work under control all the time — so that a flare means resting, not a scramble to arrange help while barely able to hold a phone.