President John F. Kennedy established Older Americans Month 60 years ago when a third of older Americans lived in poverty, and nearly half had no health insurance.

As President Joe Biden reminded us in his 2023 Older Americans Month proclamation, we’ve lifted many older Americans out of poverty over the past six decades—most notably by enacting Medicare and strengthening Social Security.

I’m sure President Biden would agree that our job isn’t even close to completion. There’s much more work ahead to ensure that all older Americans can enjoy health, economic security, a sense of belonging, and a place of respect in our national consciousness. We have little time to waste in reaching these critical goals.

The older population is growing exponentially. Our opportunities to tap the expertise and wisdom of older adults are limitless. At the same time, the health, financial, and social needs of aging Americans are intensifying.  And the challenges older adults face—which are complex and multifaceted—defy simple or singular solutions.

The federal government is unprepared to address these complexities. Responsibilities for policies related to older adults are spread across more than 25 federal agencies. While some policies within those agencies are robust, there are also policy redundancies, gaps, and an uneven distribution of resources.

This scattered approach produces policies and programs that are not as effective as they might be. It also creates gaps in services and supports, overlooks opportunities to innovate, and leaves the safety net for older persons frayed and weak. As a result, the lives of older adults are negatively impacted; their quality of life is impaired, and communities and families—particularly communities of color—are at risk.

In short, our nation has no plan to support a large and growing population.

This year’s Older Americans Month theme—Aging Unbound—should inspire us to take bold action. As the theme suggests, we must encourage older Americans to break away from old narratives about aging that focus on decline and dependence. But we must also encourage the federal government to break away from its outdated and siloed approach to meeting the needs of its older citizens.

Last December, LeadingAge offered an alternative to the siloed nature of government by calling for an all-of-government approach to addressing the needs of older Americans. That proposal deserves new attention during this month of Aging Unbound. That’s why we’re reiterating our call to create a dedicated focus and a coordinated strategy on aging policy, led by the White House.

A coordinated approach would allow the government to develop and deliver critically needed resources, services, and programs to older adults and their families. This is the only way to ensure that our country’s older adults remain engaged, independent, and valued members of our society.

With robust, coordinated federal leadership, we could better connect and address all the issues affecting older adults, their families, and aging services providers—issues like health, long-term care, housing, financial security, climate, labor, education, transportation, elder justice, technology, agriculture, homeland security, and veterans’ affairs, to name only a few.

I believe this approach would align perfectly with the Biden Administration’s commitment to older Americans and their families. The Administration has an unprecedented opportunity to drive real change by taking a whole-of-government approach, coordinated at the highest level of government, to deliver the solutions older Americans and their families need and deserve.

During this Older Americans Month, let’s do more than celebrate older adults. Let’s take decisive action to change their lives for the better.