Dr. Hascup at work in the lab

Dale and Deborah Smith Center for Alzheimer's Research and Treatment

Since 2018, the Smith Alzheimer's Center has garnered more than $7.2 million in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health.

The Dale and Deborah Smith Center for Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment at SIU Medicine provides clinical care, research and community programs throughout Illinois. Since 1986, its employees have diagnosed, treated and educated Illinois families with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. In the past year, the center, along with its Memory and Aging Network, has served more than 2,600 patients and their families. Learn more about our mission.

RESEARCH, PATIENT CARE

Gift offers renewed hope

A major gift to Southern Illinois University School of Medicine will transform the health care of people throughout Illinois and beyond. Dale and Deborah Smith recently donated a substantial financial gift to the Center for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders at SIU Medicine to expand research, enhance programming and improve care for people with Alzheimer’s disease and assist their caregivers.

Learn more

PATIENT CARE

Beyond the Medical Center

While the researchers at the Smith Alzheimer’s Center investigate new and better ways to prevent, slow, and cure dementia-related diseases, our team is caring for and supporting patients and their families through free, therapeutic, evidence-based programs to improve quality of life.

These programs are designed not only for those with Alzheimer’s, using creativity through art, music, exercise and more, but also for the individuals caring for them, equipping family caregivers with resources and skills. 

Dementia Caregiving 101

Art Express

Minds in Motion

Music and Memory

Stepping Up

Elderly man smiling
White-Coats-Horizontal

Your support makes a difference

From evidence-based programs supporting patients and their families to ongoing research dedicated to finding ways to slow progression of the disease to training the next generations of dementia care specialists, the Dale and Deborah Smith Center for Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment has big ideas, big hearts and big goals. Your gift impacts our communities and supports our vision of better health for all.

Donate

An ally for caregivers

Alzheimer's disease impacts not just the diagnosed individual, but their entire network and especially their caregiver. Here at the Smith Alzheimer's Center at SIU Medicine, we know how crucial support for caregivers is toward ensuring the best possible treatment for patients. Ann Jirmasek, LPC, shares how the Smith Alzheimer's Center can help provide that thoughtful attention for not only the person with memory loss, but their caregiver as well in this Medicine Minute.

Hascup Lab

Volunteer for a clinical trial

The Smith Alzheimer's Center conducts cutting-edge investigational interventions through clinical trials offered here at SIU Medicine. See how you can volunteer for a trial and be a part of helping find better and more effective treatments for Alzheimer's.

Learn more

Meet our team

Advancing care through research

Latest news

Alz

Senolytic treatment improves cognition in female Alzheimer’s mice

Research shows differing effects from treatment for male, female models One of the many confounding questions about Alzheimer’s disease is why women are at greater risk. Of the approximately 7 million
People with Alzheimer's or dementia enjoy art class

Brushing away isolation

Loneliness, isolation are worsening mental health in seniors Creating community and providing education can help deliver the solution. For more than a decade, Karen Lee has fostered connections
holding hands

Take the Sangamon County Community Health survey

McFadden

Fund established in McFadden’s honor to further dementia research

Sam McFadden’s curiosity and passion for studying neurodegenerative diseases will live on through the recently established Samuel A. McFadden Aging and Neurodegenerative Disease Research Fund

Latest blog articles

holiday-gathering

Navigating holidays with dementia

For many, the holidays represent a time to create special moments and carry on long-held traditions with loved ones. But for those with dementia and their caregivers, it can be a time of higher
df-usa

Building dementia-friendly communities

Creating a community that better understands Alzheimer's and dementia fosters a better environment for all. One where shop owners understand unusual behavior, where waiters can provide more patience
Fall seniors

Exercise, home safety key to fall prevention

A home is of critical importance for those with dementia. There’s familiarity as reminders of family, past holidays and traditions are present all around. It is simply the place that provides the most
Healthy food

What’s good for the body is good for the mind

Adhering to a healthy diet can do more than help you lose some weight. Whether it’s lowering risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, helping the digestive system or simply keeping your eyes, skin and