Mandy Brown 

After many months of careful preparation, observation, and reflection, I am quietly sharing that my new book, Healing and Alzheimer’s: A Care Home Study Exploring Well-being, Comfort and Connection in Dementia , is now published. This work grew from a voluntary study carried out in a residential care home, where my colleague and I explored whether gentle healing approaches might ease distress and support comfort for people living with later-stage and advanced dementia. We did

Much of Alzheimer’s care is organised around decline. What someone can no longer remember, no longer follow, no longer recognise. While this framing is understandable, it can quietly narrow our attention. When we expect loss, we may stop noticing response. During the healing study, it became increasingly clear that cognitive impairment did not equate to an absence of responsiveness. Even when memory, orientation, or language were severely affected, participants continued to r

Most approaches to Alzheimer’s care begin with what is lost. Memory. Language. Recognition. Independence.   What is spoken about far less is what remains—and what quietly responds when it is met. When we began our healing-based observational study with people living with Alzheimer’s, we did not set out to prove anything dramatic. There were no expectations of recovery, reversal, or transformation. The intention was simple: to observe whether consistent, gentle healing session