AgeWays in Oakland County: A Guide to Free Senior Services Most Families Don't Know About

There is a nonprofit in Farmington Hills that, for more than fifty years, has been quietly handling some of the most important work for older adults in Oakland County and the broader Southeast Michigan area. Most families with an aging parent have never heard of it. The ones who have, usually wish they'd heard sooner.

It's called AgeWays Nonprofit Senior Services. Until 2024 it was named the Area Agency on Aging 1-B, a name many longtime Oakland County residents still remember. The rebrand kept the same mission: helping older adults age safely, independently, and with dignity, with the help of family caregivers along the way.

AgeWays is the designated Area Agency on Aging for a six-county footprint (Oakland, Macomb, Livingston, Monroe, St. Clair, and Washtenaw) under the federal Older Americans Act. That means it receives federal and state funding to coordinate a wide range of services that, in most cases, are free to the families who use them. Medicare counseling. Meals. Transportation. Caregiver support. Help applying for Medicaid waivers.

Here is what AgeWays does, how each service works, and how to get connected.

What AgeWays Is and How It Works

AgeWays was founded in 1974 as part of a network of Area Agencies on Aging created by federal legislation that recognized the growing need for community-based services for older adults. The federal Older Americans Act funds a national network of about 600 such agencies, each responsible for a defined geographic territory.

AgeWays is the AAA for six Southeast Michigan counties. Its headquarters are at 31700 Middlebelt Road in Farmington Hills. The agency's role is partly direct service (it operates some programs itself) and partly coordination (it funds and oversees many other senior service providers across the region).

For families in Troy and the rest of Oakland County, AgeWays is often the right first call when an aging parent's situation starts to shift. The intake line is (800) 852-7795. The call is free. The conversation is usually 30 to 45 minutes. From that single call, families can usually be connected to whatever services match their parent's situation, sometimes services they didn't know existed.

Free Medicare Counseling Through MMAP

The Michigan Medicare/Medicaid Assistance Program (MMAP) is one of the most useful and most underused services in the entire senior care system. MMAP provides free, unbiased counseling on Medicare benefits, supplemental insurance, prescription drug coverage, and Medicaid eligibility.

MMAP counselors are trained volunteers who do not sell insurance and are not compensated by insurance companies. Their only job is to help families understand the options available to their parent and choose what fits best. This is rare in Medicare, where most "help" comes from agents whose income depends on selling a specific policy.

AgeWays coordinates MMAP services for its six-county region. A counselor can help with:

• Comparing Medicare Advantage plans during open enrollment
• Choosing a Medigap (Medicare Supplement) plan when first enrolling
• Selecting a Medicare Part D prescription drug plan
• Understanding what Medicare does and does not cover for long-term care
• Applying for the Medicare Savings Programs (which help low-income beneficiaries with premiums)
• Applying for Extra Help (a federal program that reduces prescription drug costs for low-income seniors)
• Sorting out billing errors or coverage denials

Most MMAP counseling sessions are scheduled by appointment, usually by phone but sometimes in person at libraries or senior centers across the region. Sessions are confidential.

For a family helping an aging parent through Medicare for the first time, or comparing plans during the fall open enrollment, an MMAP appointment can save the parent hundreds or thousands of dollars a year in unnecessary premiums or out-of-pocket costs.

Home-Delivered Meals

For older adults who have difficulty preparing their own meals, whether because of mobility issues, cognitive decline, recent illness, or simply living alone, home-delivered meals are one of the most basic but most life-changing supports available.

AgeWays funds and coordinates home-delivered meal programs across its six-county region. The local providers vary by community, but the model is consistent: a hot or cold meal is delivered to the senior's home most weekdays, often through a network of local senior centers and contracted providers.

For many seniors, the meal is the high point of the day. The delivery driver is often the only person the senior sees that day, and the brief check-in serves a real function: if the senior doesn't answer the door, the driver knows to follow up, which has prevented many quiet emergencies from going unnoticed.

The cost is typically free or based on a suggested donation, with no income test required to receive meals. AgeWays' intake line can connect families with the meal program serving their parent's community.

For families in Oakland County who have a parent living alone and aren't sure how the parent is eating, home-delivered meals are often the first concrete intervention to try.

MyRide2: Senior Transportation

Transportation is one of the silent crises of aging. The day a parent gives up driving is rarely the day someone else takes over getting them to medical appointments, the pharmacy, the grocery store, the hairdresser, or church. Many seniors quietly stop going to all of those things, and the isolation accelerates the decline.

MyRide2 is AgeWays' mobility management service. It is not itself a transportation provider. It is a phone line and a website that connect older adults (age 60+) and adults with disabilities to the right transportation provider for their specific need.

The service is free. The phone number is (855) 697-4332 (also written as 855-MYRIDE2). Hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. A mobility specialist talks through what the senior needs (medical transportation, wheelchair-accessible options, regular grocery runs, errands) and finds providers that match the situation, the location, and the budget. The arranging is free; the actual transportation may have a cost, depending on the provider.

MyRide2 currently serves four counties: Oakland, Macomb, Wayne, and Washtenaw. Note that this is a slightly different footprint than AgeWays' main service area. For seniors outside those four counties, AgeWays can still help find transportation through other channels.

For families in Troy and the broader Oakland County area, MyRide2 is the single best entry point for senior transportation. The mobility specialist often knows about programs and providers that aren't visible through any general web search.

MI Choice Waiver Intake

For families considering whether their parent might qualify for the MI Choice Waiver, Michigan's Medicaid program that helps pay for personal care in adult foster care homes, assisted living, and at home, the application starts with AgeWays.

The MI Choice Waiver is a separate topic with its own complexity, but the entry point is the same intake line: (800) 852-7795. AgeWays handles preliminary eligibility screening, schedules the Level of Care Determination assessment, and coordinates with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services on the financial application.

This is one of the most important services AgeWays provides. The MI Choice Waiver can cover thousands of dollars per month in care costs for qualifying families, but the application is slow (60 to 120 days is typical), the waitlist is real (months to longer than a year in some regions), and starting the process before the family actually needs the benefit is one of the best decisions families can make.

Caregiver Support

Family caregivers, the adult children, spouses, and other relatives doing most of the actual care work for aging parents, are often the most stretched and least supported part of the entire senior care system. AgeWays offers several services designed specifically for them.

These include:

• Caregiver counseling and support groups: opportunities to talk through what's happening with people in the same situation, in person or online.
• Respite care funding: short-term funding to pay for someone else to provide care while the family caregiver gets a break. Even a few hours a week or a weekend each month can make a meaningful difference.
• Caregiver training: sessions on how to handle specific aspects of care, such as dementia behaviors, medication management, mobility assistance, and end-of-life conversations.
• Care coordination: help thinking through the long arc of a parent's care, anticipating what comes next, and identifying resources before the next crisis hits.

For an adult child who is trying to hold down a job while managing a parent's increasing needs, AgeWays' caregiver services are often the first piece of meaningful, free help available.

What AgeWays Does Not Do

It's worth knowing the limits, too. AgeWays:

• Does not provide direct hands-on personal care in your parent's home (that's home health, which AgeWays can refer to but doesn't deliver).
• Does not provide medical care or nursing.
• Does not place residents in adult foster care or assisted living homes (that's a private decision between the family and the home).
• Does not handle hospice or palliative care directly (that's coordinated through Medicare-certified hospice agencies).
• Does not provide legal or financial advice (for those, families need an elder law attorney, a financial planner, or a CPA).

What AgeWays does is connect, coordinate, fund, and support. For most of the practical day-to-day work, families still need to engage other providers. But knowing who to call, and what's covered, is often the hardest part, and that's what AgeWays does best.

How to Get Started

The starting point for any AgeWays service is the same: call (800) 852-7795 or visit ageways.org. The intake conversation will identify which of AgeWays' services match the family's situation and connect them to the right people.

A few practical tips:

• Have the parent's basic information available: date of birth, address, current health situation, insurance coverage.
• Be ready to describe what's going on in concrete terms: "she's eating less and lost ten pounds," "he's forgetting his medications," "she fell twice in the last month."
• Ask about multiple services in one call. AgeWays' intake people are used to families who need MMAP, MI Choice information, and meal delivery all at once.
• Follow up. AgeWays handles a large volume of inquiries, and sometimes a referral or a return call falls through the cracks. A polite follow-up call after a week is fine.

A Final Thought

AgeWays has been operating in Southeast Michigan for over fifty years. It exists to help families do what families have always done, care for the older adults they love, with a little less stress, a little more information, and a few fewer surprises.

For families in Troy, anywhere in Oakland County, or anywhere in the broader six-county service area, learning that AgeWays exists and what it does is one of the most useful things an adult child can do for their parent. Not because of any single service (though some of those services are quite valuable) but because once you know who AgeWays is, you have a single phone number to call when something starts to shift. That alone is worth a great deal.