Aging in Minnesota

Aging in Minnesota was first published in 1963.With a higher than average proportion of elderly citizens, Minnesota is in the forefront of social action on their behalf. This book presents a comprehensive survey of the elderly in that state and a detailed description of efforts to meet their problems.The book begins with a brief history of the state’s attention to the problems of old people. It then describes the range of activities which were stimulated in 1959-1961 by preparations for the White House Conference on Aging and, in later chapters, reports some of these activities in greater detail. The major innovating action program was a community organization effort to help the citizens of five rural counties undertake activities to improve the conditions of the aging in their area. This social experiment is reported in full. A wealth of data about the characteristics of old people, valuable for any future planning in this field, is presented in statistical fashion. The data were obtained through a complication of state government office records and through sample interviews with old persons. The statistical studies are illuminated by the final, interpretive chapters. In on, an 80-year-old writer, Aldena Carlson Thomason, tells what it is like to grow old. In the other, Arnold M. Rose and Bernard E. Nash define the problems facing older people, predict what the future will bring, and suggest what further social action is needed.