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Living abroad: how can you assess your mental health?

Mental health has been in the global spotlight in 2021, from attempts to understand the wider impact of the pandemic to sporting superstars withdrawing from prestigious competitions. 

Published: 15 December 2021 13:17 CET
Updated: 4 September 2023 15:17 CEST
Living abroad: how can you assess your mental health?
A woman feeling under stress at work. Photo: Getty Images

Competing as an elite athlete may seem far removed from your everyday working life. But the increasing willingness of many athletes, celebrities, and even royalty to talk openly about their personal mental health challenges has wider societal implications. 

After moving abroad, it can be difficult to deal simultaneously with an unfamiliar culture, different ways of doing things at work, and a new language. If you moved shortly before or even during the pandemic, things may have been even more challenging for you; you may have been working mainly from home with few chances to meet colleagues, and feeling the distance to family in your home country more than ever.

If you feel concerned about your mental health while living abroad or during an overseas assignment, what should you do? The Local has partnered with AXA – Global Healthcare to offer some guidance for individuals and examine why employers have a crucial role to play.

Working abroad? With AXA’s global health plans, you can speak to a psychologist from wherever you are in the world1

Making mental health a bigger priority

Depression affects more than 300 million people globally, with more than 260 million living with anxiety disorders2, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The cost to the global economy is around US$1 trillion each year. Furthermore, WHO says that mental health problems can “seriously exacerbate” physical illness. Despite the scale of the problem, countries spend less than two percent of their national health budgets on mental health on average, says WHO.

But are attitudes changing and will mental health eventually be given equal billing with physical health? The reasons for companies to make the mental health of their employees a top priority keep growing. 

Steps to take if you’re feeling low

Opening up about your mental health can be uncomfortable. If you’re feeling low, you may feel you just need to somehow carry on regardless. But it’s important to know that early intervention has proven more effective than trying to continue as feelings of stress or anxiety build up.

So, what should you do if you want to get a realistic assessment of your mental wellbeing? Rather than waiting for a crisis, you can turn to online tools, such as AXA’s LowMoodQuiz and AnxietyQuiz, to honestly assess your state of mind. Such tools are intended to help you as you deal with everyday stresses and strains, not only when a major event occurs.

A young man crying in his workplace. Photo: Getty Images

What if you know you’re struggling and feel the time has come to seek help? Here are three different ways you could start a meaningful conversation with your manager, according to AXA – Global Healthcare:

  1. Be proactive – look for opportunities to regularly check-in with your manager, whether through digital communications or telephone. Could you set aside 30 minutes at the start and end of each week to reflect on your achievements together and discuss any challenges? 
  2. Use a mood scale – actively and regularly reflecting on your mood can help you recognise and flag times when you might need support from your manager. Making use of online tools like the quizzes above could help you.
  3. Ask questions – encourage your manager to share details about the support available to help you maintain good mental health. Fearful of asking for help? You shouldn’t be. Do you have the option, for example, to speak confidentially to a trained professional, whether face-to-face or by phone or video chat?

Your employer’s role

AXA suggests managers can look out for signs that an employee could be struggling with their mental health. If you have a benefits package, your employer or manager could also share details of the support available through that, such as confidential ‘virtual therapy’ by phone or video call. As a global leader in health insurance, AXA has multiple levels of health cover to fit your needs, giving you access to local healthcare professionals and facilities.

If you’re a member with a global healthcare plan, you can use AXA’s Virtual Doctor service³ to confidentially discuss anything you like. If it’s mental health support you need, they’ll refer you to the Mind Health service, to speak to a fully qualified psychologist.

Find out more about how AXA – Global Healthcare can support you

1. The service provides you with up to 6 sessions with a psychologist, per mind health concern, per policy year. Available with a healthcare plan from AXA – Global Healthcare.

2. Research commissioned by AXA found that anxiety and depression were among the top health and wellbeing concerns for expats.

3. The Virtual Doctor and Mind Health services are provided by Advance Medical (a Teladoc Health company).

This article was produced by The Local Creative Studio and presented by AXA.

AXA Global Healthcare (EU) Limited. Registered in Ireland number 630468. Registered Office: Wolfe Tone House, Wolfe Tone Street, Dublin 1. AXA Global Healthcare (EU) Limited is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.

AXA Global Healthcare (UK) Limited. Registered in England (No. 03039521). Registered Office: 20 Gracechurch Street, London, EC3V 0BG, United Kingdom. AXA Global Healthcare (UK) Limited is authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority.

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LIVING IN ITALY

Five things to know about naming your baby in Italy

What's in a name? For international parents in Italy, choosing one for their baby means considering the country's laws and cultural norms, as well as the limits of the Italian bureaucratic system.

Published: 22 July 2024 17:37 CEST
Five things to know about naming your baby in Italy

If you’re an international resident having a baby in Italy, there’s a lot to understand and get used to.

From healthcare provision and parental leave to ideas about which foods to eat during pregnancy, things are likely to differ from your home country in all sorts of unexpected ways.

When it comes to choosing a name for your child, there’s more to know about Italian naming rules and conventions. This can become complex if your partner is Italian and you need to navigate two sets of laws and cultural norms – as well as finding a name which both sets of grandparents can easily pronounce.

For some new parents, the differences between Italy’s naming conventions and those of their culture of origin mean it turns out not to be possible to use the name(s) they’d initially wanted. But it’s always better to find out about possible issues ahead of time, rather than at the registry office.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you’re having those all-important baby name discussions with your partner.

Foreign names are usually allowed

Some countries have strict naming laws, but in Italy, there’s some flexibility. Although that doesn’t mean anything goes.

Under Italian law, the main restrictions are that a baby’s given name can’t be a surname, it can’t be “ridiculous or shameful”, and it must correspond to their sex.

Foreign names are generally accepted, as long as they are written in letters that exist in the Italian alphabet.

READ ALSO: What are the rules for naming your baby in Italy?

While Italian registry office officials can’t refuse to allow a name, they can refer questionable choices to the courts, which may rule against a name deemed not to be in the child’s best interest – and can order parents to choose another.

This system means that whether or not a moniker is allowed often depends on the local registrar, and how well a parent can argue their case for a more unusual name, as shown in past court cases where Italian parents have opted for something a little left-field.

But foreign parents are given some leeway, and names aren’t denied simply for not being traditionally Italian enough.

Still, traditional names remain overwhelmingly popular, especially for boys: Italy’s official list of the most popular baby names reveals that the top ten has long been dominated by centuries-old titles like Francesco, Leonardo and Lorenzo.

You can’t name them after a parent

Italian law states that children can’t have the same first name as a parent (not even when adding ‘Junior’) nor of a living brother or sister.

This means that people from families with a tradition of passing down the same name through the generations will be unable to do so if they’ve moved to Italy.

In Italy, particularly in the south, many families instead maintain a tradition of naming children after their paternal grandparents.

Middle names are unusual in Italy

If you suggest the idea of a middle name to your Italian partner, you may meet some resistance or confusion as the concept is pretty much unknown here.

As anyone with a middle name knows, having one in Italy can result in bureaucratic mix-ups (for example, when only your first name is used in one system or document, but both are entered in another.) You may also find that Italians insist on using both your first and middle names together.

READ ALSO: ‘Not easy, but worth it’: The ups and downs of raising bilingual kids in Italy

This is often because people assume it’s a ‘double name’ or nome doppio. This is not particularly common, but it essentially means someone has two first names and both are used together, for example Anna Giulia or Maria Stella.

This is even less common with boys. However, the only time Italian law allows for a traditionally female name to be used for a male is in the case of Maria as part of a nome doppio for a male, eg. Antonio Maria or Giovanni Maria.

You can give your child a second or middle name (or even two – up to three given names are allowed). But if you want it to be a middle name (and not a nome doppio) you may find you need to add a comma between the first and middle names when registering, which will mean only the first name is then legally required on paperwork.

If you’re thinking of giving your half-Italian baby a nome doppio instead of a first and middle name, be aware that this too might result in future bureaucratic headaches, as Italian computer systems aren’t always set up to handle these, either.

Perhaps to avoid this sort of confusion, Italian parents often give children composite names (nomi composti) which are essentially two first names joined together, such as Pierpaolo or Mariavittoria.

You can use both parents’ surnames

In Italy, a woman keeps her maiden name for life, and women don’t take their husband’s name upon marriage. (As a result, non-Italian women who choose to change their names on marriage often end up in a tangle with Italian bureaucracy.)

Traditionally, a baby born in Italy is given the father’s last name, resulting in the mother having a different name from the rest of her family. 

But in 2022, the Italian Constitutional Court ruled that babies should be given both parents’ surnames, unless the parents decide to use only the last name of either the mother or of the father.

While using only the father’s name is still by far the most common tradition, a growing number of families are now choosing to give the baby the mother’s last name as well.

Italian naming practices now look set to become similar to those in Spain, where children’s surnames are usually composed of the father’s followed by the mother’s.

Most Italian families do not hyphenate a double-barrelled last name though, again conscious that Italian bureaucratic systems often will not accept a hyphen. 

You’ll need to be quick

Hopefully you’ll have a good idea of your baby’s likely name by the time of their birth, as you won’t have long to decide and register it.

In some countries, parents have more than a month to register the birth. It’s 42 days in England and Wales, for example, and up to 60 days in most parts of Australia.

But in Italy, new parents have three days to register the birth, and confirm the baby’s name, at the hospital registry or up to ten days to do so at the town hall registry.

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