Tellers at a local bank notice that "Mrs. Jones," a longtime customer, was acting strangely. Sometimes she seem confused, and at other times she was suspicious and argumentative. She begin to overdraw her account, accusing the hill of losing her money. One day, when she appeared at the edge with a stranger and a frightened look on her frontage, and withdrew a roomy sum of money, the bank controller grew alarmed and called the Berks County Office of Aging for serve. Was it possible that Mrs. Jones had become the target of someone who was exploiting her financially, he required to know. If so, what could the bank do going on for it? And how could bank body tell if other elder customers were contained by danger of financial invective?
Calls like the above grew more frequent during the 1980s, as the aging population of Berks County, Pennsylvania, grew larger and the community become more aware of the needs of its elderly citizens. "We requirement help to treaty with our elderly customers," said one backer. "Elderly customers all come across to come at lunchtime, the only time business populace have to do their bank. They all crowd into the guard on Social Security Day, giving our tellers the `Third of the Month Blues.' They regularly seemed confused around how to use the bank's services." How could workers tell if someone be suffering from dementia? What should they do if they suspected that someone was a martyr of financial exploitation?
The Office of Aging realized that the problems man raised by bank offered a real opportunity to collaborate near people surrounded by the business sector to raise the power of life for elder citizens. Because many financial abuse directed against the elderly involve large sums of money self withdrawn from bank funds accounts, banks be in a position to identify and report suspicious interactions. With training from professionals in the pen of aging, bank personnel could function as "gatekeepers" (people who are contained by regular contact with the elderly and can spot problems affecting their welfare) by reporting problems to the aging services meet people.
Thus began a individual partnership between the Office of Aging and local bankers to train bank tellers, customer representatives, and manager how to identify older customers who might be have difficulties that could lead to financial assault and how to report it. The partnership expanded to include the police, other businesses and educational settings.
At this time, Pennsylvania did not hold an adult protective services imperative that would guarantee anonymity of reporters (such a law be enacted within 1987). Banks were concerned that if they developed policies and procedures to protect elderly from exploitation, they might violate these customers' rights to privacy, autonomy, and confidentiality. It be imperative that the program be built on a foundation of trust so that financial institutions and other professionals would feel comfortable within reporting their concerns and confident about how reports would be handle.
Training on Needs of Older Customers
The training began as a series of 3-hour workshops sponsored by the local branch of the American Institute of Banking (AIB). Initially, the Berks County Office of Aging brought in professionals from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry to sensitize dune employees to hallucination and sensory losses that many elder people experience. Now the agency is fit of providing the training on its own. At the same time, the AIB couched the importance of the elder customer and developed a 9-hour curriculum called "The Older Bank Customer." In most cases, bank personnel teach the course, which is flexible, but given the ongoing relationship with the Office of Aging, this curriculum is also skilled by the Office of Aging in Berks County. Though the emphasis change depending on the need of the group, the course mostly covers the following areas:
Session 1: Demographics of Aging in American Society. This session looks at the national, state, and local demographics relating to the elderly. It provides information about the elderly themselves, who care for them, and the mobility and employment issues of their caregivers. It sets the stage for the following sessions.
Session 2: The Aging Process. This session explores the normal change that occur near aging, such as social and sensory changes, and how they affect the nouns of older inhabitants. Participants undergo experiential training beside adaptive aids to simulate hearing and hallucination loss, such as writing with their fingers tape together to simulate loss of manual dexterity due to arthritis and trying to saunter with popcorn within their shoes. Participants say they never really inherent the physical problems older general public face back this, and that this training has sensitized them not one and only to the special needs of their elder customers but to the needs of their elder relatives as well.
Tellers and customer service representatives revise how to communicate effectively with visually or audible range impaired customers. They also win tips on how to inform older customers of ridge services such as direct deposit, power of attorney, pay-by-phone, and automated teller contrivance cards. In addition, hill managers are shown how to cause the bank environment more accessible to elderly customers, such as setting aside convinced hours of the day for seniors, have one teller stripe devoted to cashing Social Security checks, and using templates to write checks. One wall is even setting up courier service to an elderly housing facility being constructed across the street.
Session 3: The At-Risk Older Person. This session discusses how to sanction symptoms of dementia, the kinds of problems ridge employees may encounter, and how to promise with them. It covers different types of assault, family caregiving relationships, when and where on earth to seek aid.
At this session, the Office of Aging also provides a list of "Gatekeeper Warning Signals." or admonitory signals for tellers and others surrounded by the position to act as "gatekeepers." Changes surrounded by behavior, habits, form conditions, and communication styles may be warning signals to contact outside resources for assist. People who exhibit the following changes may be at risk for exploitation:
* Frequently forgetting items such as a checkbook, deposit slips, or other items called for to do business;
* Frequently asking the same examine over a short period of time;
* Noticeable change in appearance and grooming;
* Disorientation -- a personage may come to the bank when it is closed or hold difficulty finding the bank;
* Paranoia -- accusing team of mismanaging money (charges that require review by a professional agency to determine whether they are true or a distortion of reality);
* Hoarding behavior such as carrying all their papers surrounded by large oodles all the time;
* Bringing strangers next to them to the bank;
* Unusual withdrawal.
Session 4: The Aging Services System. This session covers issues involved in building a partnership with the community, how to use the system, the Adult Protective Services Act, the responsibility of the Office of Aging, and the responsibility of the community. Bankers find a chance to nouns their concerns, to describe situations that have occur, and to work out new solutions.
The constraint for the training has increased in the closing five years; adaptations own been made, and section are presented independently so that the training can be targeted to meet the specific desires of each audience.
Widening the Circle of Services
By the time the Older Adults Protective Services Act (Act 79) be passed in Pennsylvania within 1987, the agency had provided bank with approximately 30 hours of training; a strong foundation existed for community cooperation and reporting of financial exploitation of the elderly.
The decree added clout to the capability of the agency to pursue emergency interventions and to protect elder people's safekeeping and assets. The law mandate that the Berks County Office of Aging provide protective services to detect, prevent, reduce, or do away with abuse, failure, exploitation, and abandonment of family 60 and over. The Act provides for voluntary reporting, and reporters who act contained by good dependence have the right to remain anonymous and are immune from civil or criminal liability.
A committee of bankers, police officer, and aging network professionals conducted a day-long workshop for elder consumers that explained fraud, exploitation, and scams Videotapes of this workshop be presented in ongoing sessions at senior centers and other organization. Additional community training was developed for police, courts, hospitals, and ambulance companies and the local electric company instituted a caretaker program for its meter readers to identify at-risk elder people by note changes contained by the exterior of their homes. Each year, more businesses are using the agency as a resource and colleges and high school now volunteer agency training programs on aging as part of their curricula.
There is no cross-question that community linkages such as these purloin staff time as well as agency resources. But the benefits far outweigh the cost. Referrals for protective services hold tripled since the beginning of this shot. While part of this growth be due to the passage of the Adult Protective Services Act, the more significant number be due to community trust in the agency, which developed throughout this teaching process. In fact, as this article be being written, the Office of Aging received a bid from a bank examiner about one of her elder customers. The woman, a long-time customer, had taken to calling populace at the bank three and four times a year and asking the same question over and over. They knew her very well enough to realize that this behavior signaled a problem. "We at the mound probably see some of our regular customers on a more consistent basis than their family," says Kay Haring, mediator of the Berks County Bank. Haring called the Office of Aging to discuss her concerns and a caseworker have been sent out to evaluate the woman's condition.
"Every merchant banker has a story something like an elderly customer," says Haring. "As she leaves the guard, you have that sinking fear that something is wrong, but you think `what can we do?' There is something that can be done. It's as simple as a phone ring. You can make a difference."
Older ethnic group reap the benefits when bank body understand the aging process, are competent to recognize vulnerability signals and at-risk situations, know what services are available to help, and are confident ample in the system to label the request for help.
