Health & Safety Abroad

Your program fee includes international health insurance for the duration of your program. The policy is specially designed for students traveling internationally, and it includes coverage for physical and some mental health issues, counseling, medical and other forms of evacuation, a bed-side benefit for students hospitalized for more than a few days (which pays to fly family members to their bedside), and more. 

Learn more about your comprehensive coverage through CISI and what you will be covered for while interning or studying abroad.

Our on-site staff are your go-to support for health and safety concerns while you're abroad. As local residents, they're familiar with health care providers and local authorities and have established relationships with nearby U.S. consulates and embassies.

You will participate in comprehensive pre-departure and onsite orientations that focus on known health, safety, and security risks in your host city or region and how best to avoid or mitigate them.

During these orientations, you'll be provided with detailed information that include resources such as city maps, local emergency numbers, and specific instructions regarding various health, safety, and security concerns. You'll also be given a small card to carry with you at all times that contains the full contact information of the IES Abroad office and key on-site staff members, as well as the IES Abroad emergency phone number, and the equivalent of “911” to reach local police, fire, and other emergency services.

In order to help our staff members stay in touch with you in an emergency or crisis, you'll be required to have a cell phone that works where you will be studying abroad. By keeping your cell phone with you, charged, and turned on at all times, you'll be able to respond promptly to emergency calls, emails, and text messages from IES Abroad staff.

We provide thorough and ongoing training of our U.S.-based and on-site staff to proactively plan for, and respond to, emergencies and crises abroad. We have a dedicated Crisis Management Team made up of U.S. staff members, as well as on-site staff at every IES Abroad Center worldwide, who are on-call and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for emergencies and crises.

• Crisis Management Plans & Protocols: IES Abroad maintains an extensive global crisis management plan and corresponding protocols. In addition, every IES Abroad Center around the world has its own tailored local crisis management plan.
• Monitoring of Local & World Events: Members of the Crisis Management Team receive real-time safety and security alerts for all of our locations worldwide, consulting both private and governmental global security sources and experts.
• Ongoing Communications: Should a serious event arise, we will consistently communicate all safety alerts with you, your parents, our Centers, and your home college/university throughout the process so you have the most up-to-date information.

Our on-site staff maintains close relationships with local police and governmental authorities, as well as with the local U.S. Embassies and Consulates. Additionally, should you need to see a medical or mental health professional, our on-site staff will connect you with an English-speaking health care provider. When it comes to your health, we don't want the details to get lost in translation. 

When traveling independently, we require that you inform on-site IES Abroad staff of your specific travel plans before leaving through our TripTracker system. This system is designed to help on-site IES Abroad staff locate traveling students swiftly in a crisis or emergency.

We conduct a mandatory crisis management drill at each Center at the beginning of every term. The primary purposes of these drills are to educate you and your peers on our system for reaching you swiftly in an emergency or crisis, to test how long it takes for all students to respond, and to verify the accuracy of the cell phone number our staff has on file for you.

Any students who fail to respond or are slow to respond are counseled by our on-site staff regarding the rationale underlying the drill and the reasons it is important for them to respond promptly.