Palm Beach County now has a network built around one organ: the brain. Palm Health Foundation has launched the Brain Health Network, a countywide effort linking researchers, clinicians, educators, caregivers and everyday residents, as its Train the Brain campaign turns 10. A $150,000 grant from the Dana Foundation is funding it, and the October kickoff events from Delray Beach to Pahokee are free.

Ten years of thinking about thinking

Train the Brain started a decade ago with a simple idea: taking care of your brain matters as much as taking care of your body. Each October since, the foundation has used the campaign to bring brain health out of the lab and into churches, community centers and living rooms. This year's theme, Connected Along the Brain Coast, nods to a county that has quietly become a center for neuroscience, anchored by Florida Atlantic University's Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute in Jupiter.

What the network does

The Brain Health Network is meant to turn those scattered strengths into something residents can use. The Dana Foundation grant supports a program called Civic Neuroscience in Action, in which residents and researchers learn side by side and turn new science into practical, culturally relevant ways to protect memory, mood and thinking. Partners named in the launch include the FAU Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute, Alzheimer's Community Care, BeWellPBC community connectors and New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church.

Why your brain needs a network

Brain health covers more than Alzheimer's disease, though that is the concern on many families' minds in a county with a large population of retirees. It includes memory, mood, stress, sleep, stroke recovery and the everyday habits, like movement, social connection and creative activity, that research links to a healthier brain as we age. The trouble has always been that the experts and the people who need them rarely meet. A researcher in Jupiter, a caregiver in Belle Glade and a pastor in West Palm Beach may all be working on the same problem without knowing each other. The network's job is to put them in the same room, which is why this month's events are spread from the coast to Lake Okeechobee and why so many of them involve art, dance and conversation rather than lectures.

Five free events this month

All of the October events are free and open to the public, and most ask you to sign up in advance through the foundation's events page.

  • Friday, Oct. 9, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.: Exploring Brain and Body Connections with NeuroArts, at The Hub at Space of Mind, 101 NW 1st Ave., Delray Beach.
  • Saturday, Oct. 17, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.: Connecting Our Community, Caring for Our Minds, a gathering with information and support on Alzheimer's, dementia and Parkinson's, at New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, 911 9th St., West Palm Beach.
  • Wednesday, Oct. 28, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.: Arts on the Muck, an arts day for seniors at the Eddie Lee Rhodes Gymnasium, 360 E. Main St., Pahokee.
  • Thursday, Oct. 29, 2:30 p.m.: Art of Care Workshop, an art and dance class for ages 60 and up with no experience needed, at the Carolyn Sims Center, 225 NW 12th Ave., Boynton Beach.
  • Thursday, Oct. 29, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.: From Discovery to Care, a panel on research, treatment and practices in the fight to end Alzheimer's disease, at FAU's Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute on the Jupiter campus.

Where to start

If someone in your family is living with dementia, the Oct. 17 gathering in West Palm Beach is the one to circle: it is built around connecting caregivers with real help. If you simply want to keep your own mind sharp, the Delray Beach NeuroArts morning and the Boynton Beach class for seniors are low-key ways in, and the Jupiter panel is a chance to hear where Alzheimer's research is heading from the people doing it. Seats fill, so register early.