Spousal Life Conference
November 1998
- Summary
- Economic Issues for Foreign Service Spouses and Families
- Social Implications of Foreign Service Life
- The Role of The Foreign Service Community Association
- Foreign Service Families in a Period of Change
- Eldercare at a Distance
- Fighting For Educational Equality For Foreign Service Children
- Employment Possibilities For Foreign Service Spouses
- In Sickness and in Health:
- Financial Support
- Health Promotion
- First Aid Training
- Medical Evacuations.
- Disease Prevention
- Bureaucracy
- Maintaining Medical Continuity
- Recommendations Arising from Discussion on Health and Medical Issues
- Planning, Process & Participants
- "Economic Issues of Foreign Service Spouses" by Linda Louis, Embassy of Switzerland
- Social Implications for Foreign Service Spouses by Maria-Teresa Lichem, Embassy of Austria
- The Norwegian Spousal Pension Scheme
- The Special Compensation Scheme for Spouses of Finnish Foreign Service Officers
- A report written by the spouses of the Italian Embassy in Ottawa (Association of Foreign Service Employee Spouses)
- The Gaimusho Mutual Aid Association - A report written by the spouses of the Japanese Embassy in Ottawa
Spousal Life in the Foreign Service
November 7 1998:
Summary:
On November 7 1998 The Foreign Service Community Association (FSCA), with the support of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), hosted a one-day conference in Ottawa to discuss and compare issues and policies that affect foreign service spouses around the world and the operation of the foreign ministries to which they are attached. The importance of these topics was reflected in the participation of representatives of twenty six diplomatic missions together with members of the Canadian foreign service to total one hundred participants. In addition, representatives of DFAIT management and the other ministries of the Canadian foreign service attended, as did a representative of Treasury Board and the trade unions whose members are affected by the regulations and policies that were to be examined.
Findings:
While similarities in concerns such as educational continuity for their children, and health maintenance while living internationally exist on all levels among foreign service spouses, the most crucial issue that faces them all at the end of the twentieth century is financial. The lack of continuity in employment opportunities over a wide range of skills, and subsequent personal pensions have particular relevance when it is clear that two-income families are not an indulgence, but a necessity for family maintenance.
Various combinations of compensation and pension benefits are being implemented or examined by foreign ministries. The lack of a direct employer-employee relationship between the ministries and the spouses of their employees has been a seemingly insurmountable hurdle over the years. However, some countries have made the decision to ignore that fact and make payment to the spouse through the employee.
The Nordic countries have led the way in implementing pensions for spouses and partners who are associated with their foreign services. The Swiss spousal association initiated an imaginative solution by attaining a pension payment from the ministry that is paid through the employee, and administering a private plan for spouses with an off-shore Swiss insurance company.
Great Britain is paying tax-free compensation to spouses who are willing but unable to work at posts, or who are unable to find employment at a financial rate comparable to that found at headquarters. In 1998 the United States foreign service ministries implemented a plan that allows spouses who work within their missions overseas to transfer the possibility of employment between missions and back to the ministries in Washington, and as employees to contribute to the federal government pension and health plans.
Canada has a new spousal employment database that is in its infancy. The Swedes market the special skills of their spouses through a database. The Swiss have a co-operative agreement with Swiss and German multi-national companies in which the resumes of company and foreign ministry spouses are listed as are job openings that are open to both. International employment outside one's own diplomatic mission, particularly in professional fields, is more attractive to many spouses than working inside government agencies. They seek support in finding that employment, including information for developing portable careers, and the initiation of international databases of employment opportunities. The afternoon session on that issue was most interactive as the participants acted as resources for each other.
The topics of health maintenance and family impact are historically constant concerns of internationally mobile spouses. The Austrian spouse's association successfully lobbied to stimulate changes in the onerous academic demands made on Austrian children on their return to Vienna; we heard a verbal roadmap of the methods that led to success. Similarly, participants recounted methods to assist their children in adapting to repeated change during various developmental stages in their lives. Our rapidly aging populations guarantee that the normal pressures on families to care for their aging members are exacerbated by the additional pressures exerted by the distances involved in living internationally. The expected stages of change were listed, as were the support services provided by the Canadian foreign service, and suggestions for change as well as for personal preparation.
Health maintenance and medical care while living an internationally mobile life involve accepting personal and family responsibility for continuity. Services that are changing within the Canadian foreign service complicate an already confusing situation. It was emphasized that realistic expectations based on clear and current information combined with clearly understood limitations are necessary to avoid medical and health disasters.
The Spousal Life Conference
The conference was divided into two panel presentations in the morning, and four open discussion sessions in the afternoon, separated by coffee breaks and a buffet lunch. The panels concentrated on topics of universal importance. They were Economic Issues for Foreign Service Spouses, that include compensation and pension benefits, and Social Implications of Foreign Service Life, the elements that are so directly affected by a family's international mobility, like children's educational continuity, and care of the elderly when distance separates family members during critical periods.
The panels and discussion leaders included contributors from the Canadian foreign service and spouses assigned to diplomatic missions in Ottawa whose broad experience made very important contributions to our conference. We are deeply grateful for their experience, their consideration, and their humourous insights. From a variety of countries, our experiences blended together.
The afternoon discussions expanded in a less formal way on the topics that arose in the morning's plenary sessions. The titles were Financial Compensation: What Is A Spouse Worth; What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up; Family Impact: Balancing Family Responsibilities On The Move. The fourth discussion, titled In Sickness And In Health: Physical and Mental Consequences of The Rotational Life, was added because it is felt that medical and health issues are frequently avoided in contemplating the long and short term impacts of international lives.
During the day the newly initiated Spousal Employment Database was demonstrated in the lobby outside the conference rooms, and a sample table of printed material was available to those who were interested.
If the method of achieving change in policies that affect spouses was discovered, it was added to the report. For example, it seems that foreign ministries that control their own budgets have frequently been successful in making those changes. Often the reality that internationally mobile spouses are unable to build the same pension benefits as their more geographically stable compatriots has dictated that the issue of equality is the most important, and most successful argument for change. If that was identified as a successful argument, it is cited.
This report summarizes the information that arose during the entire conference. Additional information that was unavailable at the conference itself is included in the report; in each case it is identified. A list of the countries represented among participants is an attachment to this report. Some participants provided notes to assist in the simultaneous translation of their material; with their permission it is attached. After the conference, spouses attached to the Japanese and Italian embassies in Ottawa produced papers detailing policies that affect their spouses and families; those papers are also attached.
Other methods of compensating foreign service families such as foreign service allowances were briefly discussed; in the broader sense, allowances were not the focus of this conference. Financial compensation, pensions, SPOUSAL employment, family issues and health-related concerns are addressed.
Economic Issues for Foreign Service Spouses and Families
In every country where both partners take paid employment for granted in order to support their families, lack of employment opportunities on postings for the spouse who is not employed by the foreign ministry is an increasingly important problem. Farther down the line of course, the lack of pension benefits for the second partner is similarly critical. These limitations directly affect foreign ministries by forcing families to choose not to be posted, to be posted on a separated family basis (the employee on posting, the spouse/partner remaining at home), or by forcing the employee to leave the foreign service for economic reasons because it is impossible to support the family on a single salary.
Spousal and family support associations connected to various foreign services have highlighted these issues to their ministries. Many foreign ministries have seen the effects of changes in expectations, both cultural and financial, over the past generation. An important hurdle cited by many foreign ministries to compensation or benefits for the spouse is that the employee's spouse is not employed by the foreign ministry unless s/he is a direct employee is his/her own right. In that case a salary and subsequent pension are earned by right of that employment. Considering the fact many foreign service spouses are expected to fulfill a demanding role overseas that has nothing to do with her or his professional qualifications for no remuneration, this argument has often been seen as both spurious and frustrating. While no government can afford to ignore the implications, responses in policies that affect spouses have varied.
AUSTRALIA: Represented by Marie Wood of the Australian High Commission in Ottawa The Australian SPOUSAL association is foundering, although the officers' association is flourishing. There is no compensation plan in place or being contemplated for spouses, although a recent study on Australian foreign service spouses highlighted the lack as an issue that is crucial to the operation of the Australian foreign service. Spouses can be paid for entertainment-related work.
AUSTRIA: Included as part of her discussion of the changes in policy accomplished by the Austrian SPOUSAL association in her Panel 2 presentation by Maria-Teresa Lichem from the Austrian Embassy. In October 1997 it was agreed in principle by the Austrian foreign ministry and the finance ministry that the foreign ministry should facilitate government contribution to a SPOUSAL pension scheme for foreign service spouses. As of November 1998 those contributions have not materialized. Fifteen years of pension contributions must be made in order for a pension to be paid out.
FINLAND: Written material provided through Stina Lundberg of the Finnish Embassy in Ottawa from the Finnish Spouse's Association in Helsinki. See Attachment A special compensation/pension law for foreign service spouses was passed in 1989 and revised in 1991. If the spouse is employed for pay at posting, this law does not apply. Any other pension is not affected. The pension is taxable at a rate of 22.5% on payment. The pension is indexed.
EXAMPLE: The spouse has accompanied the employee abroad for a total of 15 years = 180 months x 121.57 FMK = 21882.6 = 1823.55 per month
GERMANY: Contribution from the floor from Azra Lemp of the German Embassy 5% of the tax free foreign service allowance is payable through the employee to the spouse to apply to a personal private pension.
NORWAY: Collected by Suzanne and Gilles Beaulieu-Gingras at the Canadian Embassy in Oslo; presented by Nancy Fraser
At the end of 1998 the Norwegian parliament passed a Pension Act for foreign service spouses. The full pension is predicated on thirty years' service overseas, and is reduced by the difference between that time and the actual figure of time spent overseas. It is not initiated until ten years have been spent overseas. The Norwegian government pays all premiums. The pension is paid out starting at age sixty seven, the age of retirement in Norway.
Limited employment possibilities overseas for all spouses, and the difficulty male spouses face in leaving their jobs at home, thus making female diplomats more reluctant to accept postings, are defined as thereasons for the initiation of the pension scheme at this time.
SWEDEN: Contributed after the conference by the Canadian Embassy in Stockholm, and by the Swedish SPOUSAL Association. Swedish foreign service spouses/partners are paid the equivalent of Cdn $300 per month contribution to their pension plan while on posting. Heterosexual and same sex partners are included.
SWITZERLAND: Represented by Linda Louis of the Swiss Embassy in Ottawa As a contribution to a private SPOUSAL pension, the Swiss foreign ministry pays the employee the equivalent of Cdn $ 6,400 per annum, tax free, if s/he is accompanied by his/her spouse on posting. The Swiss spousal association has arranged with a private Swiss insurance company based in The Bahamas for a spousal group pension scheme. The SPOUSAL association is the contract partner with the insurance company.
The spouse decides on the amount s/he will contribute to the pension scheme annually, which is paid out at retirement age anywhere in the world. One third of Swiss foreign service spouses are contributors to the pension plan, and their numbers are growing.
This arrangement was initiated by the SPOUSAL association when it became clear that, after divorce, if the employee remarries and remains married to that spouse for more than ten years, all his/her pension benefits, including survivor benefits, will devolve to the second spouse. The length of the first marriage is immaterial.
THE UNITED KINGDOM: Represented by Helen Kelly of the British High Commission in Ottawa.
As a result of the 1998 report on British foreign service spouses, entitled Role, Recognition and Recompense, in 1999 the United Kingdom is initiating a tax-free compensation package for accompanying spouses who are committed to a rotational life attached to the British foreign service. That commitment is demonstrated by the spouse having spent three years at any post without compensation. From then on a payment of one hundred twenty five pounds (approximately Cdn$ 325.00) per month abroad is paid to the spouse through the employee. The spouse must have registered as willing to work at the post, and be unable to find employment that pays more than five hundred pounds per month. If the spouse is employed while s/he resides at the post and earns more than five hundred pounds per calendar month, the compensation paid is halved.
The reason the British government has come to this decision is that spouses who accompany the employee on a regular basis are treated unfairly in relation to the finances of those who stay at home. The compensation is intended as an acknowledgement of the spouses' commitment to an international life in support of the British government.
Spouses may be remunerated for preparation of representational catering at a rate that differs from post to post; in Ottawa it is Cdn$ 18.00 per hour.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
No representatives of the U.S. embassy attended the conference. However, information regarding employment, pension and insurance benefits were published in the May 1998 issue of the Bulletin. In May of 1998 the Department of State and United States Information Service initiated a system of hiring spouses at missions abroad under a five year direct hire non-career system that allows the spouse to carry that position for five years. This Family Member Appointment (FMA) makes her/him eligible for employment from one post to another or to headquarters in Washington DC. In turn, the FMA employee is eligible for the federal retirement plan and to enroll in federal health and life insurance programs.
The FMA system was approved on the basis of equal pay for work of equal value after years of lobbying on behalf of US foreign service dependents. The US State Department is responsible for its own budget.
Social Implications of Foreign Service Life
This panel focussed on some of the other issues affecting foreign service families so profoundly that are caused by international mobility itself. These include :
- the role the Foreign Service Community Association has played since 1977
- maintenance of a second career and the choices that may necessitate methods of identifying psychological and emotional hurdles for families
- eldercare at a distance and its implications within the extended family
- continuity of education for children
The Role of The Foreign Service Community Association
The role and accomplishments of the Foreign Service Community Association over the past twenty two years in the Canadian foreign service was examined in light of the changes that have taken place in the expectations of that generation. Louise Aubin, who is the office coordinator, highlighted the fact that the FSCA welcomes into its membership employees and family members of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Immigration and Citizenship, and CIDA and the military who may have international experience on a one-time basis rather than as a part of a rotational career.
From its inception the FSCA has lobbied for changes in the regulations and policies that affect the lives of families in the Canadian foreign service. The effect has been the initiation of pre-posting and return briefings for employees, spouses and children, community coordinator positions at posts, proposals for pension benefits, so far unsuccessful, and input on issues such as health and SPOUSAL employment, including Reciprocal Employment Agreements with forty six countries. The FSCA itself now has in place a SPOUSAL employment database, and has influenced the establishment of a SPOUSAL employment policy at posts, and a change in the Citizenship Act that allows foreign service spouses to count their time at post toward residence requirements before they apply for Canadian citizenship.
Within the past two years the FSCA has established bursaries for foreign service youth at post-secondary educational institutions, an Enterprise Fair for those who are exploring entrepreneurial outlets now or for the future, and a Garage Sale that allows our members to simplify their lives at the same time they contribute to their community. Some of our activities are confined to FSCA members, and others, like the Enterprise Fair and the annual Art Show are open to everyone who works for DFAIT and other government departments or to those at Ottawa diplomatic missions, like today's conference and the Art Show.
Even taking into account the pressure the FSCA applies to DFAIT on an ongoing basis, our attitude is one of partnership with the Canadian foreign service, and dedication to its aims. We think that is reflected in the financial and in-kind support DFAIT provides, and in DFAIT's consultations with the FSCA on issues that affect foreign service families.
Foreign Service Families in a Period of Change
Betty-Ann Smith, a family and marriage therapist, chaired both the panel and discussion group on foreign service family concerns. Her career has been has enriched by her experiences in the Canadian foreign service, however, because each time she leaves the country for a posting, whether she manages to work overseas or not, on her return she must start over. This time her husband has taken a foreign posting while she stays in Ottawa. She defines this as a new phase in their life as a foreign service family.
Among the services provided to members of the Canadian foreign service is the Employee Assistance Program, counselling that is available to employees and members of their families if they are at headquarters or on posting. The EAP program is utilized less frequently than it might be. No records are kept, no consultations are reported to the department, to fellow workers, or to other family members. It was reported that the German foreign service offers a similar program to its members.
In her presentation Betty-Ann reported that research has been performed in Sweden to define those who will be successful in living abroad. The most significant elements that have been discovered are: Previous experience of an international move is no predictor of success.
We are different people each time we move.
The most important element to define international success is the adjustment of the family. Families work hard to help the employee do well by working hard at successful adjustment. The negative impact of that may be that problems may be buried only to accumulate and rise later.
A positive effect of this information is that increasing numbers of international businesses are, as part of their selection and recruitment process, employing a professional to interview whole families and to assess the risk factors in a family's relocation. The benefit to the company in engaging in this process is obvious: it gathers additional information on the candidate's likely success before it allocates resources to an international transfer. The benefit to the family is that they have an opportunity to sit down with a professional to assess the costs and benefits to them in accepting and international assignment at that time in their lives.
While this method is not being used by DFAIT, additional pre-departure briefings are being provided that are designed to support families and to prepare them for the psychological and emotional difficulties they may encounter in the process of moving internationally and in adjusting to another culture.
A one day conference had taken place in Vienna a few weeks earlier, and some of its findings were reported:
- Public-private sector interactions are necessary to pool solutions and support.
- Recognition of the reality of family-wide stress is essential.
- Additional support is needed for the needs of spouses and children.
- Promotion of assistance to special-needs children is long over-due.
- The ideal length of an international assignment from the point of view of the employee and the family is three to five years; this may or may not correspond to the hardship level of the post.
- Internationally mobile children may be able to form a multi-national identity for themselves; this theory is in opposition to the commonly held belief that such children may be rootless and have no home.
Questions were raised in the discussion regarding methods of supporting adolescents through international relocation. As resources for each other, a number of experienced mothers listed methods they had found to be successful: making links before a move, identifying a peer for your child to ease the way into new and strange environment;
- accepting the fact we may have unrealistic expectations of our children at whatever developmental stage they are, and watching for problems;
- using technological developments such as e-mail to allow all family members to communicate with those they have left behind and to maintain their friendships;
- establishing safety valves
One family arranged, with their daughter, for her to come back to Ottawa to boarding school if her adjustment was too difficult at the post. Another bought their sixteen-year-old a ticket to visit their former post and her friends six months after their emotionally very difficult move. In the first case, she adjusted well and didn't need to abandon the post. In the second, the teenager returned from her visit reassured that her friendships were safe, and went on to adapt to being at home.
Eldercare at a Distance
Donna Haynal is a Canadian foreign service spouse whose career as a teacher has been cut short by her family's frequent international moves. Knowing this fact, Donna spent the final year of her New York posting studying geriatrics, and, with a partner, has established a company in Ottawa as a consultant in this field.
Donna discussed the various stages and definitions of aging, and their possible effects on the aging person as well as on the rest of the family. All the usual pressures exist, such as time constraints and the demands of children on the sandwich generation member whose parent is aging. Add to those the element of being far away from the person who is facing the vicissitudes of aging. All your diplomatic skills will be necessary when dealing with the sibling who is geographically close to your aging parent and is dealing with all those concerns on an on-going basis. Flying in a couple of times a year with creative ideas and being greeted as the prodigal will not make the foreign service member particularly welcome to other family members.
Though it is not an attractive thought, and frequently avoided for that reason, the importance of planning for the possibility of changes in needs of older family members was emphasized , particularly in preparation for an overseas assignment.
The options that are open to members of the Canadian foreign service were listed. All employees in the Ottawa region or at post are eligible to short-term counselling from the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) as well as information and referral services. Those at posting are entitled to one return fare for each parent in case of illness or death. If the elderly relative is declared a dependent and is brought to the post, all the Foreign Service Directive (FSD) allowances such as travel, medical coverage, and rental share will be adjusted. However, if the elderly person is in crisis, an international move is almost certain to exacerbate the situation rather than to ease it.
Take responsibility yourself for making decisions, and researching wills, living wills, power of attorney for care and financial issues, and for practical concerns such as installing grab bars and removing scatter mats.
It was suggested that, in light of our aging population and the effect it may be exerting on the postability of employees and families, lobbying efforts should be expended:
- to increase long distance telephone allowances to eliminate the necessity to choose between travel for the illness of an elderly relative, or travel to attend the funeral mandatory pre-posting briefing on planning for family emergencies
- more flexibility in leave for eldercare
Fighting For Educational Equality For Foreign Service Children
The Austrian experience relates directly to educational continuity and equality for foreign service children. Maria-Teresa Lichem, who chaired the family and school committee of the newly formed Austrian spouses' organization, presented her view of the problems Austrian foreign service children encountered when they returned to Vienna, and the tactics the association used to solve them.
When the Austrian spouses' association surveyed its members, it discovered that seventy five percent of the children who had returned to the Austrian school system had lost a year academically. It was necessary for eighty one percent of them to pass between thirteen and twenty three equivalency examinations before Christmas of the year of their return. Each examination was based on all the material covered in that subject in the previous year or two years, and preparation for each was to be undertaken while the student was attending school.
The association realized it would be necessary to initiate a change in law that would affect all returning students as well as the children of diplomats who are considered to be a privileged group. For this reason they approached both the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Justice. In order to influence change it was necessary in all cases to meet with the Ministers involved instead of lower level public servants, and to spread their lobbying efforts to include parliamentarians. After four years the law was changed to read "equivalency examinations may be suspended...".
Now it was necessary for the spouse's association to lobby each school to convince the administration that the word may' should be interpreted in favour of international children and the number of equivalency examinations should be reduced in each case.
The next educational issue approached by the mothers of Austrian foreign service children was the acceptance of the International Baccalaureate for entrance requirements in Austrian universities, and to allow Austrian expatriate children to apply to universities as foreign students instead of having to adhere to the same academic pre-requisites as Austrian students who complete their secondary education at home. This time the Ministry of Science was responsible for making change, and the logical pressure of the spousal association prevailed.
As representatives for the academic needs of their children, the spouses have since moved on to establish correspondence courses in critical subjects, and a summer school for intensive work in similar subjects that is housed in a castle and is open to other children.
There are important elements learned by the Austrian spousal association through its own experience that may be transferable to other countries:
- Make common cause; act together for change that will affect a group;
- Gather detailed information on a case by case basis to argue for change;
- Approach the highest level that can affect change;
- If one group abdicates responsibility to another, spread pressure to the other group;
- Perseverance pays.
Spousal Employment Databases:
The spousal employment database for Canadian foreign service spouses was demonstrated during the day of the conference. While in its earliest stages its application is limited to DFAIT, the database was designed to be expanded to include job openings in other government departments. The FSCA has been approached by an executive recruitment search company working in Canada and overseas that is interested in gaining access to this well qualified pool of potential employees. If that materializes, it would be necessary to open the database to any private sector employment agency that was interested. In addition, a participant from the Japanese embassy asked if consideration had been given to allowing diplomatic mission spouses posted in Ottawa to list their resumes in the database.
The Australian foreign service has designed a job bank, the use of which is being resisted by Australian foreign service spouses for reasons of privacy. The Swiss foreign ministry has a co-operative agreement with Swiss and German multi-national companies that allows them to share job opportunities and resumes to foster employment opportunities for international spouses. The Swedish spousal association markets their employment database to companies wishing to do business in Sweden and with Swedish companies, highlighting the very special language and professional skills of Swedish foreign service spouses.
The discussions and comments relating to employment, training and re-training of foreign service spouses at this conference were freely given, and many were received by applause and the laughter resulting from recognition of shared experience.
Participants in the afternoon's discussion session were invited to define the information they wanted to take away with them, and to share the most important information they had acquired through their international work experience. The following statements combine the recurring themes that participants wanted to share with each other:
Never say never; great opportunities can arise from seemingly not ideal situations; there is almost always a job opening somewhere, whether it's in your chosen field or not; keep an open mind;
Continuous learning is essential, stay current;
The global marketplace means there can be real advantage in international experience. Employers are now seeking internationally qualified people, and I have been able to benefit by my experience in several postings. Foreign service spouses already have more skills than most traditional workers:
- the ability to adapt
- the ability to form relationships and networks
- the ability to communicate
You are not defined solely by your job/career this is easy to forget in our career-focussed society; A career is a difficult path for most foreign service spouses to follow, but each job, whether volunteer or paid, has provided me with experience to contribute to the next opportunity that arose;
No matter where you are, get involved!Count on yourself, because the role of the spouse is frequently under-appreciated and often lacking;
Some of the difficulties that face foreign service spouses were defined by participants:
Canada has obtained Reciprocal Employment Agreements (REA's) with forty six countries that in theory allow diplomatic dependents to be employed on an equal footing with local citizens, and the dependents of those same countries' diplomatic missions to be employed in Canada, frequently the REA's are not effective. An example cited was that in European Union countries: citizens of other EU countries are given priority before those of any other country.
Lack of local languages impacts on the employability of dependents.
Locally Engaged Staff (LES) positions and short-term contracts are based on local salary levels; in Geneva or London this is positive; in many second or third world countries it is very definitely a negative.
It is often necessary for a spouse to carry a regular passport (rather than a diplomatic passport) in order to take paid employment. The sending country has discretion, and may, for security reasons, decide that is impossible. A new recruit to the Canadian foreign service pointed out that the systems now in place seemed reflective of the fifties and sixties rather than the nineties, focussing on home-making and limited job possibilities rather than careers. His concern was that the employment requirements of professional spouses, whose income frequently exceeds that of the foreign service employee, were not being addressed.
A number of spouses concentrated their comments on the fact they had no desire to be employed, in Ottawa or at diplomatic missions, by the federal government . They identified the need for a broader focus on portable careers and entrepreneurial skills. A number of participants shared information on their success in founding companies and marketing their skills while they were on posting; some also said they had experienced more success in those areas overseas than back at home.
Emphasis was repeatedly made on building one experience on all those that had gone before, and constant learning. Teachers became trainers, a nurses became a counsellor, writers became editors, one librarian evolved into a publisher, another rose as a management consultant.
A number of very emphatic comments and personal accounts were made on the value of volunteerism, both for personal satisfaction and experience, as well as for its entree into subsequent paid employment.
Funding for skills training and retraining in this period of rapid technological change was questioned by a number of participants, and responded to by the representative of Treasury Board who attended as an observer. The policy for all the foreign service directives is based on maintaining equality with Canadian spouses who are not internationally rotational as a condition of employment. She cited National Defence and RCMP spouses who are also required to move frequently, in many instances to locations that provide many fewer employment or study opportunities than most international missions. For any funding to be considered, it must be able to survive comparison with the conditions in which those groups are required to operate.
Funding for language training in both official languages for Canadian foreign service spouses has been suspended. Because similar training courses that had been offered to diplomats and their spouses by the Ottawa-Carleton School Board no longer exist, it was suggested by a participant from the Japanese Embassy that the two be combined, with embassy participants paying their share on a cost-recovery basis.
In Sickness and in Health:
Physical Consequences of the Rotational Lifestyle
Facilitator: Jennifer Davidson
Contributors: Maria Dobie (in absentia), Diane Breton, Julie Dubé, Joan Sarafian
Raporteur: Karen Lochhead
"We don't enter the Foreign Service for the sake of our health."
Challenged by this statement, the discussion on health was premised upon general agreement among the participants that our health is not improved by moving from country to country.
Financial Support
This topic was discussed from a Canadian viewpoint. Canadians, both at home and abroad, are relatively well supported financially for health services.
On a posting the employee pays for the medical services and is reimbursed by the insurance company once a claim is submitted. The amount of paperwork this entails can be overwhelming for both the employee and the administration section of the embassy. One participant explained that before going on a posting to a country that had inadequate medical facilities with a child that had a severe, life-threatening allergy, he and his wife had to purchase special medical equipment and be trained to use it in order to provide emergency care for their child. When he applied to have the cost of this reimbursed (keeping in mind they would not have had these expenses in Canada), he was told that he could not be paid for the equipment because he had not used it; had the child required it because of a life-threatening allergic reaction, he would have been fully reimbursed!
Health Promotion
The facilitator noted that diplomatic families probably find themselves supported by their respective governments in the areas of prevention and intervention. The promotion of good health, however, is mostly left up to the individual.
Maintaining a healthy diet with unfamiliar foods, or taking a brisk walk for exercise in crowded, high crime areas can be very difficult in a strange environment. Alcohol abuse is an easy trap to fall into in a lifestyle where alcohol is constantly offered, and there seems to be little discussion of the problem at an official level.
A participant commented that she felt the need "for someone to teach us before we go abroad"; that the bacterial level in tap water could be high in many developing countries, for instance, and people needed to be informed of methods of preventing contracting infections.
The Community Coordinator at many Canadian Embassies is a good source of information, often providing country-specific written material. The Canadian Foreign Service Institute has a website where excellent and up-to-date information on each country to which DFAIT personnel would be posted can be found.
The need for first aid training was suggested, particularly before departure to developing countries. One participant commented that in places where nursing care was almost non-existent, it was preferable to give injections oneself to avoid contamination; she had to find a first aid course on her own in Switzerland before their family was posted, and no course included giving injections. The panel noted that this was true in Canadian First Aid Courses as well. Many mini-clinics are established in Canadian Embassies at posts where the medical infrastructures are substandard. These are staffed by a nurse hired on contract, often Canadian. There are problems with staffing and administration of these clinics, that are slowly being addressed by an interdepartmental committee.
Medical Evacuations.
A question arose from the floor from a Canadian participant concerning what provisions women were given overseas for pregnancy and childbirth and when was it possible to be evacuated from the post to give birth in Canada. Diane Breton explained that medical evacuations for pregnancy and childbirth were automatic in posts where medical services could put a mother and child at risk should there be a complication; one could choose either to go to Canada or to a designated medical centre. Using her own experience as an example, she cautioned that one should get as much information as one could before going on the posting and fully understand the choices available.
One participant explained that she was concerned with the lack of a "serious" medical examination given to DFAIT members before and after postings, that they seemed perfunctory and not as thorough as they could have been. The post-posting medicals were given to people returning directly from hardship posts, those who were returning from "A" posts (such as Western Europe) were not given these medicals because it was assumed they had access to good health care at those posts. What about the people cross-posted to Europe from tropical postings, where they might be carrying a tropical disease undiagnosed originally in the first post?
Health care for Canadian Foreign Service families involves many levels of government and many different institutions. This seems also to be a common problem with Foreign Service families from other countries. Dealing with layers of bureaucracy can be very frustrating, particularly when one is coping at the same time with unanticipated medical situations abroad.
Several examples of this frustration were related from the floor:
A participant from Australia commented that because of their layers of bureaucracy and the inevitable paperwork it became necessary to process,"There are people, sometimes several, that ... have to know very personal details of one's medical history". She felt that this could mitigate against people seeking health care as this information might influence an employee's career. It seemed "deeply offensive" to her that her privacy could be compromised in this way.
It was noted by the panel that people often had a strong perception of their privacy being open to scrutiny. In DFAIT, for example, there are three clinical counsellors available to employees and their families. Even though confidentiality is guaranteed, people are sometimes reluctant to consult them because they are uncomfortable with airing their private difficulties in any context that is attached to the workplace. Keeping a "stiff upper lip" and "not letting the side down" is still a strong motivating factor in the diplomatic service - for children as well as for adults. Julie Dubé, who has recently acted as the FSCA representative for the Overseas Health Committee, explained briefly that the committee was formed to work on recommendations made by the Review Group on Public Service Health Overseas, pointing out that "DFAIT wants us to be well, but Treasury Board holds the purse strings". She felt that the committee, made up of representatives from Treasury Board, DFAIT, Immigration, and Health Canada, was working very slowly. The recommendations had yet to be implemented because of the size and complexity of the task and lack of funding for the recommended changes.
- Up-to-date, relevant and centrally accessible information on all aspects of health should be available to families going overseas. Information before a posting should come to the family, not be left to the individual to search out. Training on health issues should be offered regularly to families going overseas - perhaps even compulsory.
- Any medical support given by a government must be realistic, the responsibilities clearly outlined, and must be seriously aimed to benefit its clients, not just placate them. The administration of health care services overseas needs to be simpler and more flexible.
- The right to privacy should be measured carefully against what really needs to be known for administrative purposes.
- More information and services should be shared between our countries, based on well-documented data collected on health profiles of foreign-service families.
Maintaining Medical Continuity
There was a lively discussion on this topic, with many suggestions from 22 participants. Maintaining continuity is difficult with many changes of culture, language and physical environments, particularly in regard to maintaining medical records. Bringing medical records to posts abroad and also back to the home country was thought to be essential in maintaining the continuity.