title: The touch that means so much.
abstract: Many people in the Abbeyfield survey (Nursing Older People. 22, 6, 4) associated holding hands exclusively with romance. Perhaps few of them had experienced any kind of relationship with people with dementia. Holding hands is a vital mode of communication and more eloquent than words for many people in the moderate and advanced stages of the disease.
authors.affiliation: Dementia nursing home and writer on dementia care.
authors.forename: Jim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ellis