We often talk about older adults as though they are a population apart from the rest of us, even though aging is a journey we all share. Older adults are simply further along that journey, giving us a glimpse into what our own lives may look like as we age. And while aging is universal, the circumstances in which we age aren’t. Some people will grow older with financial security and a strong network of family and friends. Others will navigate chronic illness, caregiving responsibilities, limited transportation, housing instability, or decades of accumulated inequity. What should be a universal goal—helping people live well as they age—therefore requires us to understand the different paths people take to get there.
People in the United States are living longer, bringing increasingly diverse experiences and needs into later life. Public systems are supposed to evolve alongside this demographic shift, addressing health care, long-term services and supports, caregiving, housing, transportation, economic security, social connection, and the desire to age with dignity at home and in our communities, but are they? Sort of. Public systems are being asked to respond to increasingly complex needs and too often, policies are designed around systems, budgets, and eligibility categories rather than the realities of the people navigating them. Sure, a benefit may look strong on paper, but it might still be out of reach because of language barriers, transportation gaps, confusing rules, or even stigma. And a care model may appear comprehensive but still miss what people value (or fear) in their daily lives.
Public systems are being asked to respond to increasingly complex needs and too often, policies are designed around systems, budgets, and eligibility categories rather than the realities of the people navigating them.
The Value of Lived Experience
Lived experience shows how policies land in real lives. A spreadsheet can show how many people enrolled in a program, but a person’s story can show so much more: what it took to complete the application, find transportation, understand the rules, or decide whether accepting help would support their independence. Lived experience reveals the tradeoffs people make between paying for medication or groceries; accepting help or preserving independence; staying home or moving closer to services; and seeking care or postponing it because of cost, distrust, or past harm. That is where lived experience becomes essential to policymaking. If we want systems that work for everyone, we need to understand how they work for people whose circumstances reveal their strengths and the gaps. Listening to those experiences shows us what it takes to turn policy goals into meaningful outcomes.
Qualitative tools such as The People Say, developed through a collaboration between The SCAN Foundation and the Public Policy Lab, make those experiences more accessible by bringing together firsthand accounts from older adults, caregivers, and experts. Looking across these individual experiences can reveal patterns and surface perspectives that may be missing from traditional datasets or formal advisory processes. The broader value of centering lived experience is that it also creates a sustained connection between people and the policies that affect their lives. Community engagement becomes part of how policymakers understand and refine their work, rather than a one-time opportunity to provide input. This strengthens trust and meaningful ways for people’s experiences to shape what comes next; when those experiences remain part of the policymaking process, decision-makers gain a clearer understanding of how policies can improve.
Real-Life Scenarios
What does this look like in action? In rural communities, for example, access often depends on workarounds invisible to administrative data. One North Carolina participant described borrowing a friend’s car for two years because public transportation was so limited: “These are the things that people do to make do in a situation where there’s precious little public transportation.” Experiences like his can help policymakers identify where policy and implementation may need to account for the realities of people’s days. In this situation, that might look like expanding rural and demand-response transit to supporting volunteer driver programs. In this way, lived experience can help turn policy from an intention on paper into something that works in people’s daily lives.
As we shape policy today, we need to be asking: are we building the kind of future we would want to live in ourselves?
The people policymakers design for today are the very people we will become. “It’s where you come for your peace and your solace,” one Louisiana participant said of home. “I just wanna come home … to my room, in my spot, with all of the things that remind me that I am somebody, and I’m loved.” Her words offer insight into the meaning of well-being—considerations that can inform how policymakers define and evaluate outcomes, but also a reminder that the policies we shape today will shape our own lives tomorrow. The person we are now will not disappear with age—how we seek fulfilment today will still matter to us as we age; as will our needs, desires, and sense of personal identity/who we are. And every policy decision about aging is a decision about the kind of lives we are preparing for ourselves. Shouldn’t those be lives we feel valued and fully ourselves in? As we shape policy today, we need to be asking: are we building the kind of future we would want to live in ourselves? That means shifting the conversation from “What does the system cover?” to “What does it take for someone to live well?”
Good policy requires rigorous analysis and sound fiscal judgment, but great policy requires coupling that with an understanding of how decisions play out in people’s lives. For aging, that means recognizing older adults as experts in the systems they navigate and making their perspectives part of how those systems evolve. Aging touches every one of us, and the best measure of our work is whether it honors our shared humanity and helps us live well at every stage of life, because, if we’re lucky, someday we will all be older adults.
Kali Peterson is the Director of Policy and Programs at The SCAN Foundation.
Lara Santos is the Marketing and Communications Manager at The SCAN Foundation.
Photo credit: Shutterstock/Sabrina Bracher
