Children Borrow the Calm of Adults, What Does Your School Provide to Create It?

Children Borrow the Calm of Adults, What Does Your School Provide to Create It?

On March 11 the Near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools convened an emergency community forum/webinar for educators, parents, and school communities across the NESA region. The session, led by Ellen Mahoney and Dr. Steven Karaiskos of Sea Change Mentoring, was titled “Staying Grounded in Uncertain Times” and addressed something that international school communities in high-stress regions know well: the difficulty of holding a community together when the world outside feels unstable.

Ellen Mahoney and Dr. Steven Karaiskos kindly shared the resources from the webinar, which may help address some of the questions raised during the discussion:

• Staying Grounded in Uncertain Times
• Supporting Children During Crisis – Handbook
• When Grief Walks Into a Classroom: How Schools Can Respond to Loss, Change, and Emotional Weight with Care and Confidence

The central principle of the session was straightforward, and it is worth quoting directly: “Children often borrow the calm of adults.”

It is a very simple idea. What it means in practice is that the emotional state of educators is not a personal matter that sits outside the school’s responsibility. It is the mechanism by which schools function during a crisis. A faculty member who is anxious, unsupported, or overwhelmed cannot provide the steady, present, regulated presence that students need. And in regions where geopolitical instability, conflict, or rapid change are part of the operating environment, that is not a hypothetical risk. It is a recurring reality.

The Wellbeing Gap in International Schools

Most international school health insurance plans are designed around physical health. They cover hospitalization, outpatient consultations, specialist referrals, and emergency evacuation. These are essential, and a well-designed plan covers them comprehensively.

But the mental health and wellbeing infrastructure that educators actually need in a high-stress environment is often either absent, underspecified, or buried in the fine print in a way that makes it practically inaccessible.

Consider what the NESA webinar identified as the core needs of educators under stress: access to self-regulation support, the ability to process grief and uncertainty, and the confidence that they are not navigating the situation alone. These are not clinical needs in the traditional sense. They are the kind of support that a well-designed Employee Assistance Programme provides, and that a telehealth platform makes accessible regardless of where a faculty member is located or what time zone they are in.

The question for any international school is not whether its faculty will face stress. In most NESA-region schools in 2026, that is unfortunately likely a given. The question is whether the school has put in place the infrastructure to support them when they do.

What a Comprehensive Programme Looks Like

The gap between a standard international health plan and a genuinely comprehensive one for schools in high-stress regions comes down to three specific components.

An Employee Assistance Programme with real access. An EAP is not a brochure. It is a live service that provides confidential counselling, crisis support, and mental health resources to employees and their families. The key word is access: a 24-hour multilingual helpline, short-term counselling sessions that can begin within days rather than weeks, and support that extends to the employee’s family members, who are also part of the school community and also under stress. For schools in the NESA region, the ability to access support in Arabic (for example), or other regional languages is not a luxury. It is a basic requirement for the service to be usable.

Telehealth with a mental health component. Physical distance from specialist care is a structural feature of international school life, not an exception. A faculty member in Doha, Amman, or Jeddah who needs to speak to a psychiatrist or psychologist should not have to wait for a home visit or travel to a regional hub. A telehealth platform that includes mental health consultations makes that access immediate and private. It also removes the stigma barrier that prevents many educators from seeking support in person within a small, close-knit school community.

A plan design that does not penalise mental health claims. Some plans include mental health cover in principle but structure it in ways that make it effectively inaccessible: high deductibles that apply before cover activates, low annual limits that are exhausted after a handful of sessions, or per-session caps that exclude the providers faculty actually want to see. A plan that genuinely supports educator wellbeing has mental health benefits that are designed to be used, not to limit exposure.

The Educator Retention Dimension

There is a practical dimension to this that sits alongside the ethical one. International schools in high-stress regions face a structural recruitment and retention challenge. Attracting experienced educators to posts in the Middle East, South Asia, or other complex environments requires a benefits package that reflects the realities of the posting.

A school that can demonstrate that it has a comprehensive EAP, telehealth access, and a mental health-inclusive insurance plan is making a concrete statement about how it values its faculty. That statement matters during recruitment, and it matters even more during a crisis, when faculty are deciding whether to stay.

The inverse is also true. A school that asks its educators to manage uncertainty, support distressed students, and maintain professional composure without providing the infrastructure to do so is, in effect, asking them to do that work alone. The NESA webinar’s closing line was: “We heal in relationship, not in isolation.” The same principle applies to the institutional relationship between a school and its faculty.

A Question Worth Asking

If you are a school leader or HR director in a region where instability is part of the operating environment, the question to ask of your current health insurance programme is not “does it cover mental health?” Most plans will say yes. The question is: “Can a faculty member who needs support access it today, in their language, without a significant out-of-pocket cost, and without it being visible to their colleagues?”

If the answer to any part of that question is no, the plan has a gap that is worth addressing before the next difficult moment arrives.

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🆘🆘🆘 If You Are in Crisis or Feeling Unsafe

If you are in a crisis (or another person may be in danger), are having thoughts of suicide, self-harm, or feel unable to stay safe, please seek help immediately.

You are not alone – support is available. The below resources can offer immediate help:

Dropdown list of international crisis centres and suicide hotlines (listed by country): www.betterhelp.com/gethelpnow

List of international suicide hotlines (listed by country): blog.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

Reaching out is a sign of strength. Help is available now.

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Select EAP or IEAP Services:

Allianz Asia / Allianz Care
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https://awcsexpat.one.telushealth.com/home
Username: AllianzCare / Password: Expatriate

Allianz China
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APRIL Asia
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Cigna International
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Cigna China
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Cigna Africa
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cignaglobal.powerflexweb.com

MSH China
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Now Health China
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Prosper Health (China)
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Surego
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TieCare Connect
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tiecareconnect.com

Popular Expat Telehealth Therapy / Mental Health Providers:

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** Important Note: While we help guide members to high-quality options, OWC Care does not act as a medical referral service. The final decision on where to seek care rests with the individual. We are not liable for any decisions made by the member or the medical provider.