The Alzheimer’s Society offers Dementia Friends Training to financial services staff as part of its Financial Services Dementia Charter. One ABI member has implemented the training as part of their corporate responsibility programme.
The Dementia Friends sessions are hour-long ‘bite-sized’ training sessions, and these sessions have been held at regular intervals over the last couple of years. The training is primarily designed to raise awareness of Dementia, give an idea of what it is like to live with Dementia, and some of the initiatives that people can get involved in. The sessions are delivered by a ‘Dementia Champion’ and an external third party is used to deliver the training sessions.
However, two members of staff are currently in the process of training to become ‘Dementia Champions’ which will enable the firm to deliver the training internally, as well as to their outsource partners, on a more regular basis than they do currently, with the aim that a significant proportion of our workforce will become Dementia Friends.
Furthermore, the local council where the firm is based has announced that it intends to become a Dementia Friendly Village. As part of the firm’s contribution towards that, it is planning to volunteer to deliver Dementia Friends training in the local community. All of this goes toward creating a positive culture towards vulnerability and a workforce that is aware of the issues that can affect its customer base.