Editorial: Our boomer-elders are a state asset

It's increasingly clear that money for public work is going to be scarce in Minnesota for a number of years. But the state's human capital forecast for the next decade is more hopeful. The reason: The number of 65- to 74-year-olds is about to spike.

Minnesota will soon be rich in physically active, well-educated, "young" senior citizens. That will be true for the rest of the nation, too, of course, as the first wave of the baby boom generation turns 65 in 2011.

What makes that gray wave especially good news for Minnesota is that its older adults already lead the nation in volunteering. They already have acquired the habit of regularly donating time for activities that shore up the quality of life in their communities -- delivering meals, stocking food shelves, mentoring young people, chauffeuring the nondriving elderly, caring for preschool children and more.

Data collected from 2006 to 2008 by the U.S. Census Bureau specific to the Twin Cities area show that more than 40 percent of boomers and more than 37 percent of people age 65 and older reported doing volunteer work in the past year. Those were the highest responses among 25 metropolitan areas surveyed. The number of people who have passed their 65th birthday is expected to double in the Twin Cities in the next 20 years, as the number of younger people stays flat.

Some of those "younger" elders will still be in the workforce for a while. Most economists now expect paid labor by workers past age 65 to become more common, even after today's rocky economy stabilizes. But the sheer number of boomers says that even if a larger share of them than their predecessors collect paychecks into their 70s, the number of 65- to 74-year-olds able to devote more time to volunteering will still swell in the coming decade.

That added human capital was mentioned repeatedly at a Nov. 17 conference at the University of Minnesota that considered ways to confront a looming problem for Minnesota: How will a financially strapped state deal with the rising cost of long-term care for the state's frail elderly?

The conference, sponsored by Aging Services of Minnesota, brought together administrators of long-term care facilities and services from around the state to discuss strategies for affordably meeting the needs of the frailest, most disabled share of the elderly population.

That idea could meld nicely with another presented at the conference, by state Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont. She proposes consolidating all administration of state government programs that affect the over-65 set into a Department of Aging.

Too often, Rosen said, providers of long-term care services are confounded by complicated, duplicative regulations, requirements and programs now housed in the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services. Consolidating their administration would likely lead to better coordination and some cost savings.

A Department of Aging could also be a fine place to house something that state government had during the late Gov. Rudy Perpich's administration, and could use again -- an Office of Volunteer Services. It could be a clearinghouse of information about how best to recruit, train and deploy volunteers in ways that keep a community's frail elderly residents independent as long as possible. It could also steer would-be volunteers to service opportunities they might not have otherwise considered.