Study finds Mississippi needs 910 more adult day care centers

Families caring for a parent or spouse with dementia in Lafayette County are facing a shortage that has nothing to do with love and everything to do with access. A University of Mississippi-led study published in the Journal of Applied Gerontology found that about 80% of Mississippi counties had no adult day service centers, and researchers said the state would need 910 more centers running at full capacity to meet demand.

That gap matters in a county where 14.4% of the 55,813 residents counted in the 2020 census were age 65 and older. Adult day services are not just places for supervision. They provide health care, nutrition, socialization and daytime activities in a safe setting for adults with cognitive or physical impairments, while also giving caregivers time to work, shop or simply take a break.

Keith Anderson, a professor and chair of the University of Mississippi Department of Social Work, said the work started close to home because he lives and works in Mississippi and saw a chance to measure the shortage more concretely. Along with Ruaa Al-Juboori, an assistant professor of public health, he found that even if only 10% of Mississippians living with dementia wanted adult day services, the state would still need 91 more centers.

The need is pressing across Mississippi, where the Alzheimer’s Association’s 2024 facts sheet said about 62,500 people age 65 and older were living with Alzheimer’s in 2020. It also said about 109,000 caregivers provided 168 million hours of unpaid care, Alzheimer’s deaths rose to 1,694 in 2021, and deaths from the disease increased 282.4% from 2000 to 2021.

Oxford and Lafayette County do have some support systems, but they remain limited. The Mississippi Division of Medicaid says agencies may enroll as adult day care providers under the Elderly & Disabled Waiver. The Mississippi Department of Human Services says its Mississippi Dementia Care Program provides respite care and support services to informal caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias or cognitive impairment, including about 27 hours of respite care per month for 12 consecutive months.

The bigger problem is that those programs do not add up to a statewide safety net. The Mississippi Association of Adult Day Services says it was re-established in 2013 to respond to growing caregiver demand, yet the University of Mississippi study shows the supply still falls far short of need. For Lafayette County families, the shortage means the hardest part of dementia care is often not the diagnosis itself, but finding a place, a ride and a break that actually exist when they are needed.