TOPEKA — The growth in the older population is a public health success story that’s created its own challenge: how to help that burgeoning group live as healthy, fulfilled and independent lives as possible.
Kansas is now part of one response: a push to create what’s being called Age-Friendly Kansas. An advisory committee held its first meeting last month. Its goal is to develop a healthy aging action plan by early 2026.
“It will be a strategic plan,” said Emma Uridge, an analyst at the Kansas Health Institute. “Really the goal is to elevate aging as a core public health issue.”
It’s expected the plan will influence and work alongside the state’s next four-year Plan on Aging, which is required by the federal Older Americans Act and will start in 2026.
KHI, a Topeka-based nonprofit, received a grant from the Trust for America’s Health to lead the effort. At the state level, the Department of Aging and Disability Services, Department of Health and Environment and Department for Children and Families are taking part. Several Wichita-area entities have representatives on the advisory committee, including the Sedgwick and Harvey County health departments, Larksfield Place, Bluestem PACE, Wichita State University and local Alzheimer’s Association chapter.
Uridge said the advisory committee’s first meeting was primarily an introductory and brainstorming session and that KHI staff are now organizing members’ input. Uridge said topics the plan is likely to address include transportation, housing, community and neighborhood development, healthcare access and services, ageism, social isolation and the need for collaboration in the public health system. Public health systems are defined as “all public, private, and voluntary entities that contribute to the delivery of essential public health services within a jurisdiction” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Earlier this summer, KHI launched Age-Friendly Kansas with a presentation by Megan Wolfe of Trust for America’s Health and several advisory committee members.
Wolfe noted that the number of people in the United States 65 and older has increased by a third over the last 10 years and was expected to double by 2060, when it will be about a quarter of the population. “This is true in every state in the country, including Kansas,” she said.
Public health measures like seat belt laws, nutrition education and tobacco cessation programs are responsible, she said, but many longer-living residents experience chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, arthritis or diabetes: About 80 percent of Medicare beneficiaries have at least one, and nearly 70 percent have two or more.
Another challenge, she said, is social isolation, which has been shown to increase the risk of heart disease, depression, cognitive decline and other conditions. “Social isolation is one of those really costly conditions that is a public health issue but needs collaboration across sectors to solve.”
Yet another is the role that poverty plays in health outcomes for seniors.
Wolfe said it will take many public and private entities to tackle these issues and urged the state to include dedicated funding for healthy aging in next Plan for Aging.
“This is a really complex issue and won’t be solved easily,” she said. “No one agency can do it all.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article misidentified Megan Wolfe.
