Capacity Australia, established to promote education regarding capacity and abuse prevention across health, legal and financial sectors, was awarded a grant by the Dementia Collaborative Research Centre to educate the banking sector on financial abuse and dementia. The aim was to develop a knowledge translation tool for bank staff on this issue.
This resource is designed for staff in the banking/financial sector and the e-learning tool is available for purchase direct from Capacity Australia.
Authors: Prof. Henry Brodaty AO, A/Prof Carmelle Peisah
Partners: Capacity Australia
News & Publications:
- Peisah et al. 2015, “Knowledge translation regarding financial abuse and dementia for the banking sector: the development and testing of an education tool” International Journal of Geriatric
- Dementia, Financial Abuse and Banking – Summary Report May 2015
- “Adult children pilfering parents’ savings to pay debts, renovate” TV Channel 9 Financial News bulletin
- “New tool to help detect financial abuse of Australians” Australian Bankers Association Inc. media release
- “Children siphoning elderly parents savings to renovate, pay debts” Herald Sun News item
Background:
We aimed to develop a knowledge translation tool tailored to the banking environment, to
- increase dementia awareness; (ii) empower front-line banking staff to better understand financial capacity, supported decision-making, signs of financial abuse and exploitation of older people with dementia; and
- inform staff of the appropriate responses to suspected financial abuse.
Following consultation rounds with the banking industry, we developed an adaptive eLearning (Smart Sparrow) education tool which integrated:
- existing knowledge about dementia and financial abuse;
- the Australian Banking Industry (ABA) Industry Guidelines on Financial Abuse Prevention and
- feedback from the consultations/interviews with banking staff about abuse scenarios, appropriate strategies for dealing with such, and opportunities for supported decision-making in the banking environment.
The tool was tested on 69 banking staff across Australia from two major banks. It comprises a pre-test of 15 multiple choice questions, followed by a learning module tailored to the individual’s performance on the pre-test, and a post-test to assess knowledge translation. A significant increase in scores was demonstrated when baseline scores were compared with post-course scores (standard error of the mean (SEM)=0.23; t = 15.1; df=68; p < 0.001).
The tool took approximately 10-20 minutes to complete depending on knowledge of participant and continuity of completion.
Partly funded by DCRC KT Program.
