Minnesota needs to help older adults live well. Is a Department on Aging the answer?

Older Minnesotans need a stronger champion at the Capitol, experts on the topic of aging say. But they disagree on who should lead the charge.

Some are calling for a state Department on Aging following this summer’s launch of the Department of Children, Youth and Families.

Others suggest the decades-old Minnesota Board on Aging — if it’s given more authority and funding — could take on a bigger role it previously struggled to fulfill.

Whatever route is selected, advocates for the rapidly growing population of older adults said better statewide planning, coordination and innovation are needed to meet needs ranging from transportation to housing to employment to health care.

At a recent meeting of Minnesota’s Legislative Task Force on Aging, Rep. Ginny Klevorn, DFL-Plymouth, compared the state’s approach to aging to a school bus — filled with good people and many ideas, pilot programs and initiatives.

“But there is absolutely no driver of the bus,” Klevorn said. “There’s no insurance company behind that bus, and we have no idea where we’re going.”

The next few months are crunch time for that task force, which has been reviewing resources and identifying supports to help people age in their communities. The group is supposed to decide on a government entity to plan, lead and implement aging policy and funding recommendations. Lawmakers are expected to take up its suggestions in the 2025 session.

Meanwhile, the population of aging baby boomers continues to climb. The number of Minnesotans turning 65 from 2010 to 2030 will be greater than the previous four decades combined, according to State Demographer Susan Brower.

“We have to prioritize aging as a key issue for the state and the government. It can’t be avoided any more,” said task force member Joseph Gaugler, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Healthy Aging and Innovation.

He said he wants a state cabinet-level position focused on the issue. “We are an aging state, and we have to address it effectively,” Gaugler said.

The governor-appointed Minnesota Board on Aging’s mission is to ensure older Minnesotans and their families “are effectively served by state and local policies and programs, so they can age well and live well.” But several people said it hasn’t had the staff and funding needed to meet that goal.

The 25-member volunteer board, which is tied to the Department of Human Services, recently examined how it was doing on its three duties under state law: administering federal Older Americans Act funding, advising how to meet the needs of older residents and advocating for policies in their interest.

“We did not give ourselves high marks,” Jane Pedersontold fellow board members this week at their meeting where they voted on recommendations to present to the legislative task force in September.

While board members are doing well on administering funds, she said, “[w]e were not able, in our current form, to really do the advocacy and advisement to the degree that was needed and really expected by older people in Minnesota.”

However, the board has recommended that — rather than adding a new state agency — the state strengthen and change its structure. Recommendations include adding a direct line of communication to the governor’s office and funding for advocacy, research, coordination and community education.

“A department with a commissioner, their role is really to carry out the governor’s plan; it’s not necessarily to innovate or critique,” Pederson said.

She said a new Department on Aging would be limited in its ability to advocate, challenge the administration and provide a watchdog role.

Instead, the board took inspiration from the Minnesota Council on Disability, which has built relationships across government departments and established itself as a sought-after adviser on disability issues, said board member Christina Cauble.

Cauble said members are open to alternatives besides strengthening and changing the board.

However, Pederson told board members that they aren’t convinced the cost of a new department would be worth it.

“Having a department doesn’t mean people will care about aging,” she said. “We have a culture and a society that really doesn’t care a whole lot about aging. Just putting a department in place, and a name change, doesn’t change culture.

“Are we spending money on something that money doesn’t buy?”

The state could have new leadership if Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz are elected to the White House, board member Roger Moe said. He said the Minnesota Board on Aging’s suggested route would be a more manageable option for a new administration.

“This is not radical,” he said. “It’s very, very doable and indeed would make a significant change.”

Some say it’s time for a more dramatic change.

“We cannot just repackage entities that we already have in place,” said Kris Sundberg, executive director of Elder Voice Advocates. “They’ve had decades to address this and they have not. So we really believe we have to have a fresh approach.”

She said she worries that some older adults could face dark realities, and potentially shorter lives, if Minnesota doesn’t improve how it addresses their needs.

“My fear is there will be more guardianships in the court system; there will be more dead bodies at home; there will be less care being provided, less oversight of care for people as they age,” Sundberg said.

She was one of many advocates who recently urged the Legislative Task Force on Aging to recommend that lawmakers create a new state agency. They suggested Minnesota should follow the lead of such states as Pennsylvania, which has a Department on Aging and recently developed a 10-year road map described as “a plan for lifelong independence.”

The Age-Friendly Minnesota Council, a group of state agency staff and some community representatives, has been working on a 10-year plan intended as a guide to “reimagine our communities as more age-inclusive places.” The Board on Aging noted that, if its role were elevated, it would continue supporting this work.

The council’s efforts have not yet resulted in Minnesota adequately prioritizing aging, said Kathy Kelso, a longtime elder advocate who wants to see a Department of Community Aging. She said she doesn’t think the state will sufficiently address the needs of older Minnesotans until there is state department with the power and mandate “not to do what DHS has not been able to do, but to do more, and do it better.”

When people think of a new state agency or office, they picture hiring hundreds of people, Klevorn said. But that’s not what she says is needed. She wants to see a cabinet-level position pushing a big-picture aging plan and improving collaboration and coordination of existing work.

“We all know what needs to be done,” she said. “Now let’s just put someone in charge and let them do it.”