Mr Greg Hingston, Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management, Hong Kong, HSBC(middle), Dr David Dai, Chairman, HKADA(left) and Ms Maggie Lee, Executive Director, HKADA (right) attended the press conference on “Building a Dementia-friendly Bank” held on 6 December 2018.

In echoing the “Dementia Friends” campaign initiated by the Alzheimer’s Society UK, Hong Kong Alzheimer’s Disease Association (HKADA) joined the global movement in 2017 to encourage all walks of life in Hong Kong to become Dementia Friends. There are currently over 4500 Dementia Friends registered in HK. In this December, we have an encouraging achievement!

HSBC has taken the first step to become the first dementia-friendly bank in Hong Kong. We partnered together to support people living with dementia in difference aspects. Trainings were conducted to various level of staff, and Dementia Friends Ambassadors are introduced across HSBC branch network. The Dementia Friends Ambassadors are equipped with the knowledge of dementia and soft skills on how to communicate with people living with dementia. We also supported HSBC in refining their internal guidelines to facilitate their staff in providing useful advice to those in need.

In addition, HSBC has recently launched Managing Money When Living with Dementia, a guide on how the Bank can help people living with dementia manage their finances. The guide was developed in tandem with us to provide useful tips to people living with dementia and their family. It is available at HSBC branches and our service centres to customers in need. Information about the different types of Power of Attorney is also available on HSBC’s public website for those in need to understand and plan their finances ahead.

A dementia friendly community depends on the collaboration of community, businesses and organizations. We hope to increase the awareness of dementia among public and encourage people to become a Dementia Friends, who will facilitate the dissemination of accurate and positive knowledge of dementia, and meanwhile take action to care and support those people living with dementia, so that they can stay and enjoy life in the community.

2019 Updates:

Apart from the above actions, HSBC also launched a new banking account in May 2019 designed for people and families living with Dementia. The account allows customers with diminishing mental capacity to manage their everyday spending, whilst simultaneously having an appointed third party attorney (normally a family member) to oversee their overall financial arrangements. You may contact HSBC or visit the link here for more details: https://www.hsbc.com.hk/power-of-attorney/basic-banking-account/