The Minnesota Leadership Council on Aging is working to improve the public’s understanding of what aging means and end ageism.
Council Executive Director Adam Suomala said the way many policymakers approach aging isn’t working.
“We’re living longer, healthier lives in Minnesota,” Suomala said. “But the people we interact with hold deeply negative beliefs about aging. Folks go to great lengths to avoid conversations about aging. We rarely use terms like ‘we’ or ‘us’ when we talk about aging. It pushes down one of the most remarkable transformations of our time.”
Aging is multi-dimensional, Suomala said.
“It involves our physical bodies, our spiritual self, our social roles, and it changes over time,” he said. “We have this decline-based narrative about aging, and what it means to grow old. But we never really contextualize all the growth and development.”
The council is focused on outreach efforts through its Reframe Aging Minnesota initiative to introduce research-based principles to advance an equitable aging mindset. The way people think and talk about aging often remains stuck in outdated narratives and ageist messages that effectively keep obsolete policies, practices, and programs in place.
Research from the National Center to Reframe Aging shows that expanding the public’s understanding of aging will help them place greater value on older people as equal members of society. Suomala noted that the verbiage people use to discuss aging can have negative connotations, and words like “elderly” and “senior” do not advance equity.
“Words matter. Researchers find that there are terms that are more productive than others. Most folks connote (aging) conversations with fragility and technological illiteracy. A call for justice means recognizing that a just society treats all our people as equals, and that right now we are marginalizing the participation and contributions of older people.”
— Suomala
The council also recently partnered with the University of Minnesota School of Public Health’s Center for Healthy Aging and Innovation—thanks to funding from the Minnesota Northstar Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program, the Minnesota Board of Aging, and Age Friendly Minnesota—to host local workshops. The initiative trained more than 1,300 people in the aging sector to reframe aging.
“We have a collective responsibility to each other,” Suomala said. “The effects of ageism are pervasive in the systems that support our lives; such as how we shape our environments, build age-friendly communities, access healthcare services, and model a respective community responsibility. Regardless of our roles, we must all take some responsibility to think about aging and bring that aging lens into our work.”
Suomala also hopes for advancements in policy impacting the aging sector.
“Unfortunately, the way we talk about aging has generally led to legislative inaction. Minnesota is often hailed as the greatest state to grow old in. But when we don’t talk about aging, we see that—even in our state—the policies and practices meant to support us as we age are not where they need to be to meet our collective responsibility, particularly for our Black, Indigenous, people of color, LGBTQ, undocumented, and other marginalized communities.”
— Suomala
The Legislative Task Force on Aging was established last year—with goals to develop state resources for an aging demographic and prioritize necessary support for it—and Suomala plans to monitor its work closely.
“At the end of the day, so much comes back to the reimbursement rates and chronic underfunding of the aging sector,” he said. “In my 25 years watching this unfold, nobody has provided a structural priority on aging in the Minnesota Legislature. And it’s time for that to change.
We see lawmakers making great progress for a student meal program at schools, while at the same time the senior nutrition program hadn’t had an increase in their rates in 20 years. Why is there not leadership across the lifespan? Why do the same values apply to one end of the lifespan and not the other? We need to elevate aging as a public priority in the state.”
Those interested in learning more about aging priorities in Minnesota can register to attend the 2024 Minnesota State of Reform Health Policy Conference at the Hyatt Regency Bloomington in Minneapolis on Sept. 5. Suomala will be speaking on the “Transforming Aging in Minnesota” panel at 1 p.m.