Face-to-Face Arthritis Support Groups

Why Join a Local Support Group?

At CreakyJoints.org, we help you to reach out and find other folks facing your struggles.

You can share support and experience on the Creaky Board, explore humorous musings on the world from an arthritis patient, and receive emotional guidance from a health psychologist.

But we also understand that sometimes it feels good to find fellowship with other arthritis sufferers in person -- whether sitting in a circle of support or enjoying a nice dinner out together.

Utilizing the powerful resources here at the new CreakyJoints.org, we can help you do this.

Find a Local Support Group

Operated by hospitals, charities, religious groups, educational institutions, and pioneering individuals, a local group of interest may already exist for you.

• Call up the aforementioned folks and ask if they operate any arthritis Support Groups.  If not, ask them if they know someone who does.
• The next time you're at a doctor's appointment, or a church service, or a university, seek out the community bulletin boards and information tables for any Support Group listings.  And don't forget your nurses -- they are at the center of our treatment universe and hear everything!
• Call your local chapter office for the Arthritis Foundation and ask them if they know of any nearby Support Groups.
• Utilize the American Self-Help Group Clearinghouse to find local groups to ask.
  
• Call your local chapter of the American Chronic Pain Association and ask them.
• Utilize the American Pain Foundation's Resource Locator to find local groups to ask.
• When logged into Facebook or MySpace, search for "arthritis support group" -- read through to see if any of the resulting profiles or groups represent a local in-person Support Group near you.  If not, join the groups and ask on their discussion boards if anyone knows of a group near you.
• Search arthritis group listings on meetup.com.
• Pose the question to fellow CJ Members on the Creaky Board to see if they know of a nearby group.
• Check out our new Arthritis Support Group Directory.  (As CJ Members submit group information, we'll post them here.)
• Or, in our Events section -- with the "only in current section" box below the search field selected -- search for your hometown, state or nearby cities to find any listed upcoming group meetings (on every page, the search box is located in the top, right-hand corner of your Web browser window).  (For more tips on how to utilize CreakyJoints.org, click here.)
  

Can't Find One?  Start Your Own Local Support Group

They write on about-autoimmune-diseases.com:  "If you don't have a local ... support group, consider starting your own. Not only will you benefit, but so too will the other individuals in your area whose lives are affected by ... arthritis."

As CJ Member TessaD shared with us on the Creaky Board, she started her own South Jersey in-person Support Group by spotting a need on a Web site:

There is a website that I found called www.meetup.com and I have started a meetup group for Arthritis in the South Jersey area there is already one for Mammouth County.  Below is my link:

http://www.meetup.com/The-Cherry-Hill-Arthritis-Meetup-Group/

The coordinator of the group pays the fee (which in this case was me) 72.00 for 6 months. I have been looking for something in this area for awhile now and haven't found anything. When I heard about meetup.com it was for a book club and found other area's for meetups for Arthritis and there are about 13 to 20 people in the South Jersey/Philly area waiting for someone to start one.  So I said what the heck for me it was 72.00 to start one for now, to see if it will kick off.

-- TessaD

• To do as Tess did and search for folks not yet in a group but interested in joining one on meetup.com, click here.  (Requires sign-up fee.)
  
• And/or create a Facebook group to coordinate your local in-person Support Group meetings.  Invite local arthritis-interested folks to join.  (To find them, search Facebook for "arthritis."  Or click through CreakyJoints' listing of fans to find folks living near you.) Make sure the group is visible to the public. (Free.)
• And/or create a MySpace profile specifically for your local in-person Support Group.  Invite local arthritis-interested folks to join.  (To find them, search MySpace for "arthritis."  Or click through CreakyJoints' listing of friends to find folks living near you.) Make sure the profile is visible to the public. (Free.)
• And/or create a page on a free Web hosting site, like Angelfire.com.  (Free.)

Don't forget offline means of publicity:

• Ask your local physician's office, church, community center, etc. if you can post or distribute flyers about your Support Group at their location.
• Consider placing a classified ad in your local paper (they may provide free listings for such gatherings).
  
  Then ...
  

Tell Us About Your Group!

Found a Group or starting one?  Tell us about it and we'll post it in our new Arthritis Support Group Directory.

To enter your group's info, click here.

We'll also post your group's upcoming meetings -- all of them -- on our Calendar.

To submit an upcoming meeting, click here.

Have Suggestions On How to Improve This Page?

(Thank you to CJ Member EdinNJ for the idea.)