Bank Supports Aging Customers with Dementia Friendly Training for Its Employees

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Show Notes

You can find the 6 Warning Signs Specific to Money Management that Rhonda Lewis mentioned in the podcast on page 2 of the Dementia Friendly America's Banks and Financial Services Guide.

Transcript

Intro: I'm Dr. Nathaniel Chin and you're listening to Dementia Matters, a podcast about Alzheimer's disease. Dementia Matters is a production of the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. Our goal is to educate listeners on the latest news on Alzheimer's Disease Research and caregivers strategies. Thanks for joining us.

Dr. Nathaniel Chin: My guest today is Miss Rhonda Lewis, executive administrative assistant at River Valley Bank. This community and customer focus banking organization offers personal and business banking in several communities across Wisconsin and Michigan's upper peninsula. In 2018, Rhonda led a company wide initiative to certify River Valley Bank's 15 locations through local Dementia Friendly programs. She trained 150 team members and logged nearly 1500 miles to accomplish this task. We are very happy to have Rhonda Lewis on the podcast to discuss the benefits of Dementia Friendly programs, and the unique importance of this training among financial institutions. Rhonda, welcome to Dementia Matters.

Rhonda Lewis: Thank you for inviting me.

Chin: To start, what are some common financial challenges people face as they age?

Lewis: Well, Dementia Friendly America identifies six warning signs specific to money management. Lapses in memory that caused people to miss appointments. Confused payments of documents or repeat orders or questions. Disorganization with documents or record keeping or sending money management skills, like forgetting to record transactions in their checkbook or incorrectly filling out their registers or checks. Decline and ability to do basic math computation. So, all of a sudden you have five plus five just doesn't register that it's 10 anymore. Difficulty grasping financial concepts that were previously understood. Lastly, poor judgment with finances such as drastic changes in investment strategy or interest in get rich quick schemes.

Chin: Those are really helpful six factors. Now, do banks look at those?

Lewis: If they're a good bank, they should be looking for it. No matter whether you think that the individual is suffering from some type of cognitive disorder or not, you really should be watching your customer's financial transactions to make sure that there are not ebbs and flows with their deposits and their withdrawals.

Chin: I really liked the six factors and we'll make sure that those are repeated too, because frankly, it can also be something that family members are on the lookout for. Whether it's their parents, their grandparents, their spouse.

Lewis: Correct.

Chin: Well, the Alzheimer's Association often has the 10 warning signs in general, but now you have six warning signs financially.

Lewis: We do, and this again comes out of the Dementia Friendly America organization.

Chin: Wonderful. Well, how did the Dementia Friendly training and certification initiative come about at River Valley Bank?

Lewis: Well, my father passed away in January of 2015, with dementia. In July of 2015, I started at the bank. That fall, we were contacted by the leader of Dementia Friendly Middleton, because our River Valley Bank here in Dane County is located in Middleton. She had reached out and asked us whether we wanted to become Dementia Friendly. We gathered our small team, we only had about 15 people at the time. We became Dementia Friendly. After that meeting I said to Stacy, who is the leader, my father passed away just a few months ago and I think I'd like to get involved with this. So I did, I became a volunteer and then sometime in 2016, I went and was trained to become a Dementia Friendly trainer, which means I can go into the community and train, businesses, retailers, banks, whatever works best. Since then, I have been out training within the community and it took me almost two years to get it through our system at River Valley, because our corporate offices in Wausau went through the HR department and their turnover, et cetera. Once I had put the plan together, they thought it was a great opportunity.

Chin: I'm so glad you did and I'm so glad that members of the community reach out to businesses to each other really to further this movement of Dementia Friendly. When you talk about this in River Valley Bank, programs like this costs money in staff time and training; how did you approach bank management about starting the program and how did they respond to you?

Lewis: Very well, as a matter of fact. After I had gotten basically the approval, I had put together a plan as to what I thought it would cost and how much time it would take. I had originally planned about $2,500 it would take for my mileage, my hotels and food, et cetera. I identified traveling to our bank locations in central Wisconsin and then the Northwoods of Wisconsin for one week and then up in the UP for our bank locations there and another week. After that was all said and done, I actually came in under budget. Of course being a bank, I think they always like to see that. It was a great opportunity, and they embraced it with no real reserve.

Chin: Well, that's wonderful. For those that are listening, it seems to me that preparation is key here, really laying out what you anticipate the costs and the plan to be.

Lewis: Definitely.

Chin: What do employees learn in Dementia Friendly training?

Lewis: Really what to watch for and be more aware of as far as changes in the way the customer goes about their financial business. It really comes down to basic customer service on steroids. That's kind of how I referred to it. There is a way to watch that person's transactions, I had mentioned previously. As well as when you approach an individual, always approach them from the front. Don't come up from behind and speak with them, because you might alarm them. Always smile and make eye contact, friendly facial expressions, and always have really friendly body language as well. Tone of voice is important. Then as far as communicating, you want to speak very clearly, simply and slow down if you need to, because it is hard for someone with a cognitive disorder to grasp everything in a quick manner. Use short sentences, and pause between those sentences. Give one direction at a time. When you come into a bank specifically, you don't want to throw out to them, we have money markets and CDs, checking and savings, and all that. You want to make sure that you give them the opportunity to understand each one and ask questions. Really rephrase your answer if need to. It's basic customer service, but I'm approaching it in just a slower manner. Slower, if you use that acronym, it's: smile, listen, one thing at a time, words clear, eye contact, and remain calm. That's how we kind of go about our training.

Chin: That's a wonderful acronym. It's funny that you, express it as customer service because those are the same techniques that I go over with my patients and the family members from my patients. It really transcends all areas. Now, are there other unique angles to Dementia Friendly training, specifically for financial institutions? You mentioned some of them, but perhaps are there other warning signs you tell tellers or other bank employees or maybe just different approaches to a customer in a bank?

Lewis: You keep your eyes and ears out for a shift in the patterns of the way that they do their financial transactions. Generally if you're a full time employee, you see the same people over and over again and you get very customed to those individuals. If you are a customer and do regular business, a consumer or a business type of customer, you want to make sure then that you know those patterns. Perhaps calling in versus someone coming in, in person, you could possibly signify some type of coercion going on. You really want to watch that as well as if someone comes in and someone else's with them all of a sudden. You don't know if they're being coerced into taking a transaction that might not have been normal for them. Or watching their pattern when they go back out to their cars, because when I went on my tours, if you will, my training, one of the what we call financial specialists had indicated that there at one time they had seen someone go back to their car and hand off money to someone else. At the time they didn't necessarily think about that, but now that they've gone through the training they realize maybe there was something going on, whether it was a family member or a friend. You really want to watch that and disheveled appearances too. Someone with a cognitive disorder or dementia may start looking a little differently, confusion. Those are some of the things that we really want to keep an eye on.

Chin: Those are all really good tips, again, in the financial institution, but also out in the community in general. How do the employees at various branches respond to this type of training?

Lewis: Incredible. We have tremendous support and willingness to share their own personal stories and scenarios that they've encountered, whether it was at work or if it's been in their own families. With the first question that I asked when I trained was, how many of you are aware of dementia as far as it touching upon someone within your family or friends. It kind of the 80, 20 rule, 80% of them have raised their hands and said, yes, it has affected me. It was really phenomenal the way everybody reacted. I had asked for ambassadors for each location to come forward and be trained, now going forward every quarter when we have new employees come on board during the three months, I have these trained ambassadors now and they train the new employees. It was really phenomenal and was really pleased with the support.

Chin: What have you heard from customers about this initiative?

Lewis: Yeah, each location received a "We are Dementia Friendly", sticker to place on their front door or window. We've had customers come in and ask us what that was all about. Our front end line does know how to answer that question. Right after I had gone and done the trainings, we got a nice amount of media exposure as well after press release had gone out. They had come in and asked us a little bit more about it, and wanted to know why we're doing it and was really proud of us. I had one gentleman from the UP contact me, or actually contacted one of our locations, and asked who it was that was responsible to do the dementia training. They told them my information and he called me basically to thank me for spearheading this. That was really nice. I had another lady who contacted me to ask them questions on what she should do because her sister had early onset and she was just afraid of how the financial dealings were going to take place. She wanted some suggestions on that. There are a number of those type of reaches out from the community. Then the internal support has been phenomenal. We have a blog on our website; each location landing page on the website has a "We are Dementia Friendly" logo. We did outdoor marquee messaging and internal monitor messaging. Our president put out a president's message that was sent to all computers. We really have had great support and I'm really proud of the company that I worked for to embrace it.

Chin: It's amazing because you had the company support that led to the community support. It just reinforces each other, correct?

Lewis: Yes.

Chin: Of course initiatives that are accepting and accommodating of people with dementia, they help strengthen communities. They're extremely valuable service to your bank customers as you've just told us. Has it also had an effect from a business perspective or has it created ripples in the banking community as you know it?

Lewis: I can't really speak on the behalf of the business perspective, but I can comment on the creating ripples. I'm a member of Dementia Friendly Middleton as well as Dane County financial group, which are comprised of financial institutions, attorneys specializing in elder law, adult protective services, the ADRC aging and disability research center, et Cetera. We've made really great headway communicating the importance of Dementia Friendly training initiative in the banking community. We conduct biannual, "train the trainer" sessions inviting members of financial institutions and money managers to be trained to be Dementia Friendly. We've had two of those so far and we've trained, I don't know, 50, 60 people, something like that. It's their responsibility then to go back to their financial institution and do the training like I did. We had Wisconsin Bankers Association attend just our last training. From that they've invited us to a webinar in June on Dementia Friendly banking practices. Really great outreach there, and River Valley Bank was awarded one of the 10 most innovative banks last year by American Banker Magazine because of our initiative. We've had some excellent ripples as you say, through the banking community that we're really proud of.

Chin: It seems like one of the real strengths of your success here is the "train the trainer" or train more people so that they can go forward, that ripple, and then do some more training, whether it's at the bank or maybe in the community. It's not just awareness and understanding, which of course are important, but it's also such a deep understanding that you can then share it and train with another person.

Lewis: Definitely. We received regular emails from our leader for Dementia Friendly Middleton. I'm sure it's the same for other communities. They reach out and say that so-and-so business wants to be trained or they need to be retrained and spent a year or more and they have had some changes in personnel. We're always looking at the outreach.

Chin: What do you think will be the future results of this initiative, both for your branches and the communities where these branches are located?

Lewis: Well, we really have great momentum now, and a great group of compassionate, hardworking individuals. All volunteers that have to drive to continue to promote the awareness and remove the stigma of dementia. That's where my involvement is primarily because I do have a full time job with River Valley Bank, but I do believe in this initiative and it hit home really hard with me and I want to be involved. I think that we've really made tremendous strides in the past year, not only in the financial communities, but certainly all of Dane County. In the Dementia Friendly communities in a group involving really a great team of volunteers. We are fortunate to have Joy Schmidt, who's the Dane County dementia care specialist that leads with her heart and soul and is the backbone of the great efforts that have taken and continues to lead by example. At River Valley we continue to be proactive in our approach by training new members, and retraining as needed because really after all, it's the right thing to do.

Chin: Well, thank you Rhonda Lewis and thank you to River Valley Bank for making this a priority. If I could have you end by just simply counting off one through six with those financial tips for our listeners.

Lewis: There are again six warning signs specific to money management; lapses in memory that caused people to miss appointments, confused payments of documents or repeat orders or questions, disorganization with documents, or record keeping. If you have known someone that has always really done a great job of their record keeping and you start seeing some disarray and confusion, that's bells and whistles should be going off on that. Worsening money management skills, forgetting to record transactions and checkbook or incorrectly filling out registers or checks, the decline in ability to do basic math computations, difficulty grasping financial concepts that were previously understood. Lastly, poor judgment with finances such as drastic changes in investment strategy or interest in get rich quick schemes.

Chin: Well with that, thank you Rhonda for being on the episode today and we will look to you to continue to spread the good word.

Lewis: Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate your time.

Outro: Dementia Matters is brought to you by the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. The Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center combines academic, clinical, and research expertise from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, and the Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center of the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. It receives funding from private, university, state, and national sources, including a grant from the National Institutes of Health for Alzheimer's disease centers. This episode was produced by Rebecca Wasieleski and edited by Bashir Aden. Our musical jingle is "Cases to Rest" by Blue Dot Sessions. Check out our website at adrc.wisc.edu. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook. If you have any questions or comments email us at dementiamatters@medicine.wisc.edu. Thanks for listening.