Mississippi Area Agency on Aging: How Planning Districts Help Families

You have been told to "call your Area Agency on Aging" three times — by the hospital social worker, by the Medicaid office, and by your parent's doctor — but nobody explained what that actually means or gave you a phone number. In Mississippi, Area Agencies on Aging operate through the state's 10 Planning and Development Districts (PDDs), and they are the gateway to home-based services that can keep your parent out of a nursing home.

What Mississippi's Planning Districts Do for Aging Families

Each PDD covers a multi-county region and coordinates elder services funded by the Older Americans Act and state Medicaid programs. Their core services include:

Elderly and Disabled (E&D) Waiver screenings. Before your parent can qualify for Medicaid-funded home care, a registered nurse and licensed social worker from your local PDD must conduct a physical screening. The applicant must score 50 or above on the Long-Term Care Pre-Admission Screening (PAS) instrument, certifying they require a nursing facility level of care. Without this screening, the E&D Waiver application cannot proceed.

Home-delivered meals. PDDs coordinate Meals on Wheels programs for homebound seniors who cannot prepare food safely.

In-home personal care referrals. Assistance with bathing, dressing, mobility, and medication management for parents who need help but do not yet qualify for Medicaid waiver services.

Adult day care coordination. Connecting families with licensed adult day programs for parents with dementia or physical limitations who need supervised care during working hours.

Caregiver support programs. Respite care, training, and support groups for adult children managing a parent's care — particularly valuable for families dealing with dementia-related behavioral challenges.

How to Contact Your PDD

Mississippi's 10 Planning and Development Districts cover the entire state. The two largest serve the Jackson metro area and the Gulf Coast:

• Central Mississippi PDD (CMPDD) — serves Hinds, Madison, Rankin, and surrounding counties from its Jackson office
• Southern Mississippi PDD (SMPDD) — serves Harrison, Jackson, Hancock, and the coastal counties from Gulfport

If you are unsure which PDD covers your parent's county, call the Mississippi Access to Care (MAC) helpline at 1-844-822-4622. MAC specialists connect families with the correct PDD and can initiate the intake process over the phone.

The Hospital Discharge Connection

If your parent is being discharged from a hospital and needs home care services rather than nursing home placement, the PDD is where you start. The MAC Center serves as Mississippi's designated Local Contact Agency for nursing facility transition — meaning they coordinate the process of moving a parent from a hospital or nursing home back into the community with appropriate support services.

The typical timeline: contact the PDD during the hospital stay, request a Level of Care screening, and get the E&D Waiver application submitted before discharge. If the waiver has a waiting list (it often does), the PDD can connect your parent with stopgap services — typically home care at $22 to $28 per hour out of pocket — while waiting for a slot.

What PDDs Cannot Do

PDDs do not draft legal documents. They do not prepare powers of attorney, file guardianship petitions, or handle Medicaid applications. They screen for clinical eligibility and coordinate services. The legal and financial paperwork — establishing a durable POA, setting up a Miller Trust for parents over the $2,982 income cap, or filing a Medicaid application — falls to the family or their legal representative.

This is where having proper legal authority matters. If your parent cannot manage their own affairs and you do not have a durable power of attorney, the PDD will screen your parent but the Medicaid application will stall because no one has the legal standing to sign it, provide financial records, or manage the required trust accounts.

The Mississippi Power of Attorney & Guardianship Kit pairs the legal documents you need — durable POA, advance directive, Miller Trust guide — with a complete directory of Mississippi elder care contacts, including PDD intake numbers and Division of Medicaid regional offices.

See more Mississippi guides →