The wife of an employee - let us call her Angela - called at about 9.00 am. Her voice was calm to begin with, but as she started to tell what was on her mind, she became more emotional and distressed. The counsellor could hear small children in the background, and sometimes Angela had to stop talking because the baby was making its way up the staircase. After making sure that the service was confidential, she began to talk.

Her husband had been transferred from the United States to Switzerland 13 months ago. Just recently, they had bought a beautiful home and ordered a new fitted kitchen. When the kitchen arrived after three and a half weeks of delay, it was obvious that the measuring had not been done properly. The kitchen company took the responsibility, after trying to blame a man who had ceased to work for it. Four weeks previously almost the entire kitchen had had to be taken out again. Since then, the kitchen company had not reacted to her phone calls. She had problems speaking in German, although she was starting to learn the language, and the people she rang pretended they couldn't understand English. Her husband was constantly on business trips, and when he came home, too tired to bother with such matters. This made Angela feel even more alone with the problem.

The counsellor understood that there were many issues involved, including emotional ones, but first of all the practical problems had to be solved. She helped Angela write a letter to the kitchen company. Angela wrote her claims in English and faxed the document to ICAS, who translated it into German.

Second, the counsellor talked to Angela about the possibility of help in the house, and gave her a list of agencies where she could find an au-pair or a cleaning lady who could take over the hardest work. This would give her some freedom to move about again. The financial part of this was not a problem, as the husband had a good position and earned well. Angela just had not thought of this option herself.

ICAS also found an English-speaking nursery not far from their home, which took children from two and a half years of age. Angela was delighted.

Angela went on to get a babysitter and a cleaning lady once a week. This gave her the opportunity to take some German lessons, and the contact to other mothers at the nursery made it possible to start making new friends. She also received the address of the American Women's Club. She had not known it existed, and this too was very welcome to her. After a while the kitchen was installed, and she didn't have to wash the dishes in the bathroom sink or buy fast food any more.

All this had of course been a nuisance to the couple, who had been afraid that their relationship, which had been very good before they moved to Switzerland, would suffer. Now that the practical problems were solved, they both felt much more at ease.

ICAS let Angela know that she could call anytime, day or night, as many times as she wanted.

Rita (names are made up) called ICAS in the afternoon, talking in a determined manner. She must have been upset, but did not want to let anyone know. The problem was rolled out very quickly: her husband had cheated on her with a woman at work. She had just found out and she was not mistaken. There was proof and John had finally admitted it. This was not the first time he had been with other women, but Rita had decided it was going to be the last time. She wanted a divorce and she wanted to know her rights. She had been married to John for 29 years, had travelled along with him all over the world, raised two children, put up with his affairs for so long, and now she had had enough.

Rita was Iranian and John Canadian, and both had lived in Switzerland for nine years. Rita knew nothing about the Swiss divorce law, so ICAS did some research, called her back and gave her the information the following day. What was remarkable was that Rita didn't take any notice of the answers she received. Instead she seemed very quiet, quite the opposite of her attitude the previous day. The counsellor asked what was distracting her. Was she not happy with the answer? Yes, she said, very happy. Then the counsellor heard her voice start to tremble, and soon she broke into tears.

The anger had disappeared and only her total despair remained. For a while Rita just cried, but then her whole story started to develop. She said afterwards that it was so nice that someone who was not judgmental had had the time to listen to her. The counsellor spent about half an hour in assessment and counselling, talking about how Rita felt, asking her questions such as did she have a doctor she could see, did she have friends who could support her, did she take any drugs, alcohol or medication to calm her down, did she ever think of suicide, where were the children now, and whether there was any other practical help she needed. The counsellor asked if Rita would consider marital counselling to clear things between herself and John. Rita said that in spite of her love for him, she was now so hurt that she was not willing to get her hope back only in order to lose it the next time he cheated on her. In addition she had suggested therapy to him before, but he had always refused.

Then the counsellor told Rita about the opportunity to see somebody face to face, a psychotherapist close to where she lived, who would assess her situation and discuss with her how to proceed. Rita said she would think about it and call back the next day.

The following day Rita rang back and agreed to see a psychotherapist in Geneva. She thought it was a good idea although she was a little nervous because she had never had therapy before. The counsellor assured her that ICAS therapists were very experienced and the service confidential.

ICAS always tries to get in touch with affiliate psychotherapists as soon as possible, but with Rita the counsellor thought it was urgent, because she seemed quite alone and depressed, although she had not expressed any suicidal thoughts and was not taking any drugs. The case manager called Mrs P, a skilled psychologist, who immediately made an appointment with Rita for two days later. Mrs P later called the case manager and confirmed that Rita had attended.

After two sessions of assessment, Mrs P suggested that Rita should receive long-term therapy to support her during the inevitable divorce. The ICAS Employee Assistance Programme only guarantees two professional face-to-face assessment sessions. If the case can be categorized as short term and the focus is on pure problem solving the therapy can go on for up to five to eight sessions, otherwise the client has to be referred to another therapist and be paid for by health insurance or privately.

So Rita was sent on to another psychotherapist. She went there for six months, during her divorce. The ICAS case manager called her back after three months, and Rita told her that she finally was able to take her life into her own hands. She had moved away from John, taken a small apartment in Geneva, and was slowly getting back on her feet. Communication with John was easier now, and she still missed him, but she didn't regret the divorce.

Mr W called ICAS in the afternoon. He was Irish and had worked for a big company in Switzerland for the previous five years. His question was about Swiss law on the acquisition of real estate. He wanted to buy a house for himself. He was about to get his 'C' work permit but was not sure whether he could buy a house; if he could keep it if he were transferred abroad for three years; and if he could keep it if he left Switzerland for ever. He also wanted to know if he would be able to rent it out to third parties when he was abroad, and whether there was a limit to the size of the house he could buy.

ICAS also gave him the address of the home page of the Swiss Federal Office of Justice, where he could link in to the English translation of this particular legislation. To make things easier for him, it also faxed him a German printout with arrows that indicated the way through the German pages to the English version.

ICAS did not only assist Mr W in finding information, but helped his company too, because Mr W did not need to take time during office hours to do this time-consuming research himself. In this way Mr W could go ahead with his job assignments and leave his questions to ICAS.

As the three examples suggest, expatriates often find that moving to another location can create problems in family life. According to ICAS, this is the prime adjustment problem that expatriates face. Global managers may enjoy working in different cultures, but their families may not be primed for accepting change in their lives.

ICAS provides all the services that expatriates and their families require for assimilating into a new cultural context. Many multinationals are retaining ICAS (or comparable organizations) to oversee their expatriates' assimilation process. Other multinationals are developing the expertise to provide support in-house. It is assumed that these multinationals have selected their expatriates with great care, and that support is being extended to people who are culturally sensitive. The caveat suggested by the ICAS experience is that the selection process should be extended to the expatriates' families as well. Many companies, like Du Pont and Conoco, are following this approach.

Suzanne Boèthius says of the assistance ICAS provides with practical problems, 'We always give information to our clients about the place they are going to, so that they know about simple but everyday matters such as how to fill out pay bills, how much tip to leave at a restaurant, and so on. This is just so that they can feel at home a little earlier than if they had to find out all these things after arrival.' She says of the provision of psychological counselling, 'It really is astonishing how the provision of psychological counselling can make the wife of an expatriate more willing to adapt to a new culture. Once in a while, wives of expatriates suffer from depression when relocated. That is where psychological counselling helps.' Regarding the extension of assistance to family members of expatriates, she notes, 'If the family is not happy, then the expatriate will not be happy. He will therefore be unable to work properly. So for us, we cannot just look after an expatriate, without looking after his family as well.'