E-learning course equips DBS, POSB staff with skills on serving customers with dementia

AS Singapore grapples with an ageing population, DBS Bank has rolled out an e-learning course to all its 12,000 employees in Singapore to pick up skills needed to recognise and serve customers with signs of dementia. 

This comes as dementia - more common in people over the age of 65 - is estimated to affect 103,000 people in Singapore by 2030. Over a third of Asia's population is expected to be over the age of 60 by 2050, making the region home to the world's largest ageing population. 

DBS/POSB incorporated the Agency for Integrated Care's Dementia Awareness (Foundation) e-learning course on its cloud-based learning platform last week. Some 90 per cent of all customer-facing DBS/POSB branch staff have since completed the e-learning course and can help notice warning signs to "protect customers with dementia from potential issues such as financial neglect and exploitation", said the lender in a statement on Thursday. 

The course aims to equip DBS/POSB staff with skills to recognise signs of dementia in customers, identify ways to reduce the risk of dementia, and learn how to communicate with customers that show signs of dementia. 

Yeo Wenxian, head of DBS and POSB branch banking, said: "With Singapore being one of the fastest-ageing countries in the world, we recognise that it is our shared social responsibility to support our seniors by ensuring our staff understand how to handle age-related health issues, such as dementia, and in turn develop greater empathy for those affected."