Global economic Essay Example for Free

Global economic Essay Executive summary The current essay demonstrates the scenario of Indian economic crisis in 2014. Causes and impact to India was talked in the first section; influence on other economy especially to Australia was analyzed and Stolper-Samuelson Theorem was applied in section 2; similar situations in history were mentioned in the third section. 1. Describe its causes economic or non-economic (2% for creativity). In 2014, many emerging economies are facing liquidity crisis, especially India. It was the aftermath of the US QE exit. The QE is the monetary policy applied by countries like US, UK, and some EU members, that to expand the money supply and leverage; it was an effective short-term fix to boost investment and economy growth, yet when it became too long, it caused negative influence in both domestic and the global economy. Indian economy is highly dependent on foreign capital inflows, and most of them are the cheap money brought from countries with QE policies. With vast investment, the India government spent a lot on infrastructures and manufacture plants that the government kept a deficit account these years. Deficits became problematic when investment capitals stopped. Economically, short of money directly make those on-going projects unfinished; quitting QE will appreciate foreign currencies like USD while make the India currency Rupee comparably depreciate; when Rupee is weaker, there will be inflation in domestic commodity price. Non- economically, delay or stagnation of projects along with weak Rupee drove a loss of confidence on India economy, bear stock and gold market caused the equity and houses prices dropped,. India is exposed under financial crisis bought by deep troubles at home and abroad: weak Rupee performance due to comparably strong dollar; market gloom due to foreign investment withdraws; domestic commodity price surge due to inflation caused by currency devaluation; GDP growth slowed and Indian government is facing questions on its creditability and huge deficit account. Below charts show the economic effects of how QE policies in the rest of the world affected India and caused financial crisis: First of all, when foreign currencies (like USD) tapered the investment injection to India (S0 to S1, q0 to q1), Rupee devaluated (as more Rupee need for 1 dollar, r0  to r1); as Rupee devaluated, price of imported goods increased, higher cost shift the aggregate supply leftwards and caused higher price level (P to P1) and lower real GDP (Y to Y1). 2. Describe its impact on world trade and commodity prices, and use the Stolper Samuelson theorem to predict the effect on income distribution in Australia. As mentioned above, stagnation of foreign investment and weak Rupee caused slower GDP growth and higher commodities prices. Devaluation of Rupee makes Indian government even harder to repay its deficits, which in turn affected all the economy activities globally. As one of the two superpowers in Asia, India has considerable economic influence over Australia. Indians are less rich compare with the rest of the world; therefore less Indians would come to Australia for study. Education market is negatively affected and there will be job losses or even closing down in education sector in Australia. As a net energy importer, India has large demand for Australian energy products, especially for coal (for coal is the main energy resource in India). Comparably strong Australian dollar makes Aussie products less favored by India, expect the mining products, for those are necessities. According to Stolper-Samuelson theorem, assuming full employment and free labor mobility, as the demand for mining products stay steady while demand for luxury products or other non-necessities slowdown, there will be different changes in mining and other sectors. For mining as a capital-intensive industry, selling price increase will increase capital and rent costs, but lower the real wage; on the other hand, labor sectors like agriculture and services industries, shrink foreign demand results price cuts, which wage level also decreases yet capital and rent costs rises. Below charts show how the Stolper-Samuelson Theorem applies on the interactions between capital/rent and wage costs. The green line represents the labor-intensive industry (marked as L, like agriculture) and the orange line represents the capital-intensive industry (marked as C, like mining); when there’s a price increase on capital-intensive products, the curve shifts rightwards (to C1), capital/rent cost increases (r to r1) while wage level decreases (w to w1); when there’s a price drop on labor-intensive  products, the curve shifts leftwards (to L1), capital/rent cost increases (r to r1) while wage level decreases (w to w1); Moreover, weak economy in India may promote talent immigrations for skilled labor (e.g., from IT industry) moving to Australia. Economically, increased abroad labor supply would lower the wage level in Australia, which may cut costs of producing and make Australian goods and services more attractive to the rest of the world; Non-economically, gathering of professions will boost technology improvement, that would have Australian more competitive; on the other hand, a surplus of labor supply may cause social problems like unemployment and high government payment on unemployment insurance. 3. Document any historical crises that might be relevant for your answer (4%). The current India financial crisis is somewhat similar to many cases in the history. The 1929 Great Depression started after the â€Å"Black Tuesday† of stock market crash in 29 October; astonishing unemployment rate had got many people lost home and the depression lasted until 1933 (America’s Story). The Great Depression is very representative because it was caused by many typical indicators like subprime bubble burst, capital rupture, unbalanced industrial structure, and pessimistic over future economy (Bemanke James 1991). One thing different is that the Great Depression results commodity prices drop where the 2014 India crisis results inflations. The price level increases while GDP slowdown could be explained as India’s high dependency on foreign investment and the vulnerability of Rupee. Part 2 Executive summary Drug policy can change supply and demand curves. Penalizing supplying reduces equilibrium quantity and raises equilibrium price while penalizing users reduces both. It is found that different policies have their advantages and limitation. An example in Singapore indicates death penalty for suppling drags but some disagree regarding social perspective. There is an ongoing debate about drugs prohibition by government. Advocates  believe prohibition can reduce drugs trafficking and use, so that lower crime, improving productivity and increasing people’s health. Opponents believe prohibition has only modest effects on trafficking and use while causing many problems such as numerous other negative side effects and increased crime and corruption. One issue in this debate is the effect of drugs prohibition on government budgets. Prohibition entails direct enforcement costs, and prohibition prevents taxation of drug production and sale. Understandably, thus, some politicians, commentators, interest groups, and citizens have embraced unconventional approaches to closing fiscal gaps, such as legalizing drugs. The enforcement costs would be negligible and governments could levy taxes on the production and sale of drug. Also, government expenditure would decline and gains in tax revenue. The figure analyses the market for drug if there were no government intervention. The equilibrium would be at point A, which price P1 and Q1. Total revenue of sellers and total spending by buyers would be the area of the rectangle P1*Q1. The other figure shows the effect of a government effort to restrict supply through any of several methods, including vigilant customs inspections, arrest and stiff penalties for drug dealer, or efforts to reduce drug traffic from producing countries like Thailand. The decrease in supply is represented by a leftward shift of the supply curve, establishing a new equilibrium at price P2 and quantity Q2. All this suggest that supply restrictions if they successfully reduce the equilibrium quantity of drug and will also raise its equilibrium price. Similarly, based on the inelastic demand for illegal drugs, has led many economists to advocate the controlled legalization of most currently illegal drugs. Others advocate a shift of emphasis in the war from decreasing supply to decreasing demand. Policies that might decrease the demand for illegal drugs and shift the demand curve leftward include stiffer penalties on drugs users. The figure shows a policy of reducing demand. As the demand curve shifts leftward, price falls from P1 to P3, and quantity demanded falls from Q1 to Q3. This would lead to total expenditure on drugs decrease and can  contribute to a low crime rate by drug users and make the drug industry less attractive to potential dealers and producers. Opponents to the policy of full legalization Opponents believe that the legalization of drugs would increase use, lad to more experimentation by youth, and exacerbate the existing deleterious effects that drugs have on society (Smith, 2011). They are of the opinion that government subsidization of addicts would have crippling effects on the economy. They also feel that legalization would help to create a large black market for drugs. The point of view is that dealers will still be involved in crime and violence and those users will still need to support themselves by engaging in criminal activity, thus, it will result in even larger prison populations. Basically, they believe that the legalization of drugs would lead to increases, not reductions, in crime because there would be more addicts and because of the aforementioned black market (Wilson, 1990). Also, they believe the legalize drugs would have devastating effects on public health, the economy, quality of life, culture and society as a whole. Opponents to the policy of penalizing use There are some arguments that against the drugs uses. For example, the failure of prohibition to prevent consumption of illicit drugs shows that existing policies do not work. It would be preferable to use the money saved by ending prohibition to provide more drug rehabilitation centres and more drug education. More than this though, prohibition creates a powerful supply vacuum which can only be filled by criminals. The consequence of this is less safe drugs (from adulteration), violence and stronger organised crime elements. Moreover, by criminalising drug users, prohibition needlessly removes people from potential employment and use to society and possibly creates criminals out of people who wouldn’t otherwise be so inclined. Some illegal drugs are no more dangerous than the legal drugs of alcohol and tobacco. On the other hand, proponents of medical drugs such as marijuana argue that it can be a safe and effective treatment for the symptoms of cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, pain, glaucoma, epilepsy, and other conditions. They cite dozens of peer-reviewed studies, prominent medical organizations, major government reports, and the use of marijuana as  medicine throughout world history (Barton, 2007). Opponents to the policy of penalizing supply All criminal and civil penalties against production, distribution, sale, and possession would cease because the policy might impose drugs specific regulations and taxes if in a legalized drugs regime, as occurs now for alcohol and tobacco. This would affect government budgets such as government would save the resources currently devoted to arresting, prosecuting, and incarcerating drugs producers and consumers (Holland, 2010). Also, government would collect tax revenue on the production and sale of legal drugs. The tax rates on drugs might be the same as those applied generally, or they might be higher, as with alcohol and tobacco. Miron (2005) indicates that drugs such as Marijuana legalization would reduce government expenditures by roughly $8 billion annually and would generate tax revenue of approximately $2.4 billion annually if drugs were taxed like all other goods. Opponents to the policy of penalizing both use and supply Criticisms of the current drug policy are varied and come from a wide variety of perspective. For example, current policy is not meeting its goals of reducing illegal drug use or its consequences. Demand for illegal drugs has not been reduced in vulnerable population or in the general population as evidenced by recent significant increases in illegal drug use among high school seniors (Inciardi, 1999). The high percentage of illegal drug use among arrestees indicates that current policy significantly contributes to criminal behaviour among drug users. This suggests that drug law simply criminalize a medical and public health problem and ask the legal system to deal with what it is, in fact, unable to affect a medical condition. Also, the drugs can be used in medicine to treat the various diseases that people have. Singapore, where is a Southeast Asian island city-state, is facing the rising of drug consumption and healthcare costs problems. The government of Singapore constitutes a range of severe polices to solve these marijuana problems. Acutely Singapore is close to the Golden Triangle opium production  region, which is the 2nd largest opium production centre in the world, as well as a major transport hub. Hence it is a transshipment point for illicit drugs, as well as minor market given the relative affluence of society (TheRealSingapore, 2013). Therefore, the drug demand will always remain, as will drug trafficking, due to Singapore status as a transport hub. In fact, the social mechanisms are harmed by the drug due to the crime, also the individual health are damaged by the marijuana (TheRealSingapore, 2013). For the actual policy on marijuana in Singapore, according to international business time 2011, Singapore, like much of Southeast Asia, has very draconian laws, particularly with respect to drug trafficking. Sometime, the drug trafficking often leads to the death penalty. In my opinion, I disagree with the death penalty due to the drug trade refer to the opponents to the policy of penalizing supply above. In Singapore, it is the penalizing supply only. For example, any adult convicted of trafficking at least 15 grams of heroin, 30 grams of cocaine or 500 grams of cannabis, faces mandatory death penalty (international business time 2011). So far, estimates that at least 400 people have been executed in the island since 1991, mostly on drug-related convictions. Thus, Singapore has very small population about 5-million population; it has one of the world’s highest rates of executions per capita (international business time 2011). In addition, Singapore has defended its drug policies. In 2009, The UN Human Rights Council strongly disagrees that States should refrain from using the death penalty in relation to drug-related offenses. However, Singapore protects their drug policy that the death penalty has become major policy to deterring drug (international business time 2011). One of the reasons why someone refuses the analysis of economic to solve this problem is that the drug problem is not only the economic problem but also the social and health problems. Although using the economic analysis to deal with the drug problem that it can give the government maximum financial benefits, it will badly influence the health problem of people. Also the rate of social crime will increase due to the drug trade. According to Buddy (2013), the drug increase alertness and physical activity. Marijuana use causes short-term memory loss, decreases sperm and testosterone production  in men, and may disrupt the menstrual cycle and cause miscarriage and stillbirth in women. To sum up, the drug trade brings the negative social and health problems more than the economic benefits.

The Role Of An Occupational Therapist

The Role Of An Occupational Therapist Health care like health itself is a dynamic process which can be subject to change over time. There are an increasing amount of tensions within medicine between various groups of health care practitioners, and between the evaluation of treatment and responding to patients views. This reflects the different strains and demands bearing down on medicine from numerous quarters. I am interested in exploring from the counsellors perspective, in this case the occupational therapist, what exactly they do in an effort to socialize people back into society. For example looking at the role of occupational therapist and the patients environment: physical access to buildings; availability of family and monetary support for living at home. To answer the above question I examined areas such as what is the doctor-patient relationship or in this case the occupational therapist-patient relationship, drawing on Goffmans (1969) work, who states we all play roles throughout our lives, we present ourselves to society, and we are socialized to these roles throughout our lives, especially in childhood. Society has given us our roles- doctor, patient, sick role, etc. and we as actors can perform the role. I also looked at Occupational therapies link to Functionalism, concentrating on Durkheim and Parsons and also drawing on the work of Marx and Weber and how Marx led to the acknowledgment in occupational therapy that labour is the collective creative activity of the people. Description of the research strategy For my research into how occupational therapy contributes to the promotion of health in society, I chose to use qualitative research and in this case qualitative Interviewing. Several researchers have argued that structured interviews are unnatural and restrictive. Informal interviews get deeper. Therefore I used semi-structures face to face interviews. I feel that using semi-structured in depth interviews allowed me use a more open framework, allowing a focus on the conversation and the topics that the interviewee brings up. I started with more general questions and topics to allow the conversation to build up a relationship so the participates felt comfortable and at ease so that they could talk about some sensitive issues if they arose. Semi structure interviews are less intrusive then other methods of research. They allow us to not only gather answers but also reason for the answers, therefore giving a more comprehensive analysis into this area. Therefore I found the major benefi ts of this type of interviewing where that: It is less intrusive to those being interviewed. This is because the semi-structured interview encourages two-way communication. Those being interviewed can also ask questions of the interviewer and feel as though they have their own input. Using this type of interviewing confirms what is already known but also allows the opportunity for learning other information outside of whats being asked. Conducting semi-structured interviews often will provide not just answers, but the reasons for the answers. When individuals are interviewed they tend to open up more and feel more at ease to talk about sensitive issues. (Silverman: 2001) Access I found access to interviewees a little difficult. Getting contacts was the first step, which was done through another occupational therapist I know who passed on a number of email address of willing participants. Once contacted it was difficult to arrange meeting points, days, and times that suited all, but all these issues where overcome and two interviews were successfully scheduled. Ethical considerations Mason (1996) puts forward ways to deal with ethical issues in qualitative which I tried to follow throughout this pilot. This included, deciding what is the purpose(s) of my research, e.g. self-advancement, examining which individuals or groups might be interested or affected by your research topic- in this case it would not be ethically sound to interview the patients themselves as there seen as a vulnerable group, and considering what are the implications for these parties of framing your research topic in the way you have done (1996:26-30). The main ethical considerations I took when interviewing the Occupational therapist, was that before the individual became a subject of research, he/she was notified of: à ¢-  My aims, my methods, my expected benefits and possible hazards of the research I was conducting. à ¢-  I made it clear to the interviewee of his/her right to abstain from participation in the research and his/her right to end at any time that they feel necessary to do so. à ¢-  The confidential nature of his/her answers. I also made it clear during my researching, that no individual would become a subject of research unless they have been given notice and that they freely consent that they would like to participate. No pressure of any kind was used to persuade an individual to become a subject of my research. I will make sure that the confidentiality of individuals from whom I gather my information, shall be kept strictly private. I also stated that at the end of my research any information that would reveal any person involved in the interviewing, will be destroyed, unless already consented that this precise information will be used. http://www.idrc.ca/eepsea/ev-65406-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html Evaluation of Research Process One important use that pilot studies have in qualitative research is to develop an understanding of the concepts and theories held by the people you are studying- what is often called interpretation. This is not simply a source of additional concepts for your own theory, ones that are drawn from language of participants; this is a type of concept that Strauss (1987, pp. 33-34) called in-vivo codes.2 More important, it provides you with an understanding of the meaning that these phenomena and events have for the people who are involved in them, and the perspectives that inform their actions. These meanings and perspectives are not theoretical abstractions; they are real, as real as peoples behaviour, though not as directly visible. Peoples ideas, meanings and values are essential parts of the situations and activities you study, and if you dont understand these, your theories about thats going on will often be incomplete or mistaken (Maxwell, 2004a: Menzel, 1978). Looking at my research questions, through my pilot study I found I had problems in developing the questions as I often got confused between intellectual issues- what I wanted to understand by doing the study- and practical issue- what I wanted to accomplish. According to LeCompte and Preissle, distinguishing between the purpose and the research question is the first problem in coming up with workable research questions (1993, p. 37) I decided to focus on three kinds of questions that are suited to process theory, rather then variance theory. For example I tried to base my research questions around (a) questions about the meaning for events and activities to the people involved in these, (b) questions about the influence of the physical and social context on these events and activities and (c) questions about the process by which these events and activities and their outcomes occurred. For example What does your typical working day involve? Because all of these types of questions involve situation-specific phenomena, they do not lend themselves to the kinds of comparison and control that variance theory requires. Instead, they generally involve an open-ended, inductive approach in order to discover what these meaning and influences are and how they are involved in these events and activities. Decisions about where to conduct my research and whom to include were an essential part of my research methods. I found sampling to be problematic for the qualitative research pilot, because it implies the purpose of representing the population sampled. It ignores the fact that, in qualitative research, the typical way of selecting settings and individuals is neither probability sampling nor convenience sampling. Instead it falls into a third category, known as purposeful sampling (Patton, 1990, p.169). This is a strategy in which particular settings, persons, or activities are selected deliberately in order to provide information that cant be gotten as well from other choices. For example, Weiss argued that any qualitative interview studies do not use samples at all, put panels people who are uniquely able to be informative because they are expert in an area or were privileged witnesses to an event (1994, p.17); I used this form of purposeful selection by choosing full trained Occup ational Therapists to interview. I think selecting those times, settings and individuals that can provide you with the information that you need in order to answer your research question is the most important consideration in qualitative selection decisions. On the negative side, I feel as though one of my interviews suffered slightly due to it been chosen because of its convenience of where and when the interview could take place. Although convenience and cost are real considerations, they should be the last factors to be taken into account after strategically deliberating on how to get the most information of the greatest utility from the limited number of cases to be sampled. Convenience sampling is neither purposeful nor strategic and I feel as though a different individual could have brought more information to light had I chosen more wisely (Patton, 1990, p. 181) If conducting this study again I think I would test out the use of participation observation. In this case it would be of that in an open setting, usually public and in this case a hospital. Gold (1958) states that, when using this technique the participant observer enters the setting without intending to limit the observation to particular process or people and adopts an unstructured approach. Occasionally certain foci crystallise early in the study, but usually observation progresses from the unstructured to the more focused until eventually specific actions and events become the main interest of the researcher. It is important to differentiate between significant and relatively unimportant data in the setting. I also feel several other valuable things were brought to my attention on conducting this pilot study. I found that I need to revise my interview guide, adding questions about issues I hadnt realised were important, such as asking respondent to go through a typical day. I also discovered additional useful questions, such as asking participants to describe specific medical terminology that would illustrate what they had been saying. For example, probing more around phrases such as sensory function, neuromusculoskeletal function, body structure, and client centred. I found that taking a step back and listening to participants experiences in new ways was very important to the collection of the data and feel as though in the future it will help me if I put everything know about Occupational Therapy to one side and do the interview as if I know nothing about this area. Codes Equipment Environment Medical language Patient Life Intervention Medical OT/Patient Academic Skills OT/Patient Social- Work Physical- Work Role of Occupational Therapy In qualitative research, the goal of coding is not to count things, but to fracture (Strauss, 1987, p. 29) the data and rearrange them into categories that facilitate comparison between things in the same category and that aid in the development of theoretical concepts. Above is a diagram of the codes produced after my interviews once the data had been worked through in a systematic manner. Through doing this, many connections were highlighted. For example, looking at the codes Medical Language and Medical OT/Patient. Basically, all patient information, evaluations, and interventions must be documented.(Interview 1, p.3) ..Help them overcome the effects of disability caused by physical or psychological illness, ageing, or accidents (Interview 2, p.2) Therefore this process of coding is the process of combing the data for themes, ideas and categories and then marking similar passages of text with a code label so that they can easily be retrieved at a later stage for further comparison and analysis. Coding the data makes it easier to search the data, to make comparisons and to identify any patterns that require further investigation. http://onlineqda.hud.ac.uk Main Findings After conducting this pilot study and fieldwork, I found that Occupational therapy and Sociology are two completely different sciences. While this is true they encompass a strong underlying relationship. According to Alice J. Punwar and Suzanne M. Peloguin, Occupational therapy is a diverse profession and is hard to define because it has undergone many changes since its beginnings. Early definitions emphasize the use of occupation as a remedial activity to help restore the individual to an improved state of physical and mental health. Now occupational therapy is defined as the use of purposeful activity or interventions designed to achieve functional outcomes which promote health, prevent injury or disability and which develop, improve, sustain, or restore the highest possible level of independence of any individual who has an injury, illness, cognitive impairment, psychosocial dysfunction, mental illness, developmental or learning disability, or other disorder or condition. It inclu des assessment by means of skilled observation or evaluation through the administration of interpretation of standardised or nonstandardised tests and measurements. On the other hand Sociology is understood as the study of human social life, groups and societies (Giddens: 2001) coalescing both of these definitions. Durkheim and Parsons are two of the main theorists whom contributed to the elements of functionalism. Each society has particular social needs or functional prerequisites that must be met in order for the society to strive and survive. Included in these prerequisites, is the need to reproduce new generations, meaning the need for food, clothing, control conflict and the maintenance of social order and of social solidarity. Societies achieve these social needs by developing structures and institutions that have valuable functions. The purpose of any activity or structure is the roll it has in the maintenance of society itself. Society can be viewed as one main structure wit many interrelated and inter-pendent parts. For example, the family, economy and education all work together in an effort to help society survive. Institutions can be seen as being beneficial to societies as the institutions exist for survival of societies. Most literature suggests that they shouldnt come under criticism and instead should be supported. Relating this back to occupational therapists, they should be seen as having a positive role in society. Within a functionalist perspective, roles and social roles are important. The belief is that individuals are socialised through these social roles into society, parent, student, occupational therapist. These social roles largely determine an individuals behaviour. Looking at Kavanagh Faves (1995), two occupational therapists working with homeless people, they stated that Roles are a source of identity and are the frame work of everyday life. Sociologists and Occupational therapists have put this view under criticism. They have argued against the determinism inherent in this view. Mocellin (1995) is an occupational therapist who believes the focus on roles to be stereotyping and that carrying out occupational roles, for example that of a housewife, may not always be therapeutic. Looking at Talcott Parsons model of roles and his theory of the Doctor-Patient relationship, in Bury, M. (2005), he began with the idea that being sick/ill was a type of dysfunctional deviance and that this required reintegration with the social organism. Being ill allows individuals to be excused from their occupation and other responsibilities such as looking after the family, cooking and cleaning. This was seen as potentially detrimental to social order if it wasnt controlled. The development of Parsons sick role was seen as being essential to controlling this deviance to make being ill a transitional state back to the individuals usual role. For Talcott Parsons, Physicians demonstrate Parsons the shift to affect-neutral relationships in contemporary society, with physician and patient being protected by emotional distance. Medical education and social role expectations teach normative socialization to Occupational therapist to act in the interests of the patient instead of their own material interests, and they are lead by an egalitarian universalism instead of a personalized particularism. Physicians have mastered a body of technical knowledge, it is seen as functional for social order to permit physicians professional autonomy and authority, controlled by their socialization and role expectations. Weber and Marx, look at how people exist within the world and are concerned with how that existence is shaped. Marx believes that the problems in society come from different social organisations instead of being a natural phenomenon. This is what is meant by people being constrained by circumstances, but it is important to remember the other element that stresses peoples ability to act. Drawing on earlier work of the philosopher Hegel, Marx identified that we create ourselves in a historical process, of which the motive force is human labour or the practical activity of men living in society (Bottomore Rubel 1963, p.18). Marx noted how the division on labour traps us into particular lifestyles or activities and the influence of Marx led to the acknowledgment in occupational therapy that labour is the collective creative activity of the people (Wilcox 1993) Conclusion After conducting this pilot study it is clear that my research question is still unanswered but it has provided me with ideas, approaches and clues I may not have foreseen before conducting this study. I feel this may increase the chances of getting clearer findings in my main study and has permitted a thorough check of my planned statistical and analytical procedures, giving me a chance to evaluate their usefulness for the data. I also feel it has greatly reduced the number of unanticipated problems as I now have an opportunity to redesign parts of my study to overcome these difficulties again. Overall, carrying out this smaller scaled study will hopefully lead to a rich and in-dept qualitative research project, and the end result being my research question being answered in great detail. The role of an Occupational Therapist The role of an Occupational Therapist The following essay will give a critical evaluation of the role of an Occupational Therapist (O.T) within vocational rehabilitation in the private mental health setting. Firstly the essay will describe a critical analysis of vocational rehabilitation and the added value of an O.T within this setting. Secondly it will analyse the trends within vocational rehabilitation and how these relate to O.T philosophy and core tenets, thirdly an examination of concepts of management that relate to vocational rehabilitation and finally a justification of the identification of a model relevant to vocational rehabilitation. Work can be seen as being an important part of health and wellbeing and also social inclusion. Waddell Burton (2006) suggest that work is therapeutic, helps promote recovery and rehabilitation. Leads to better health outcomes, minimises physical mental and social effects of long term sickness absence and worklessness, decrease the chances of chronic disability, long term incapacity from work and social exclusion. Also promotes full participation in society, independence and human rights, reduces poverty and improves quality of life and wellbeing. Work can be divided into four different areas: paid (contract, material reward), unpaid (housework, caring, volunteering), hidden (illegal, morally questionable) and substitute (sheltered workshop, work projects, day centres) (Ross 2007). The demand for work is extremely high due to the amount of people that are living. Compared to other countries, the United Kingdom employment figures are high with people being employed with a health related condition increasing (Department of Health 2008). It has been estimated that 175 million days were lost in 2008 due to illness with 600,00 people turning to incapacity benefit. (Department of Health 2008) It has been shown that 40% of medical certificates issued have been related to mental ill health with the average time off working being 15 weeks. (Department of Health 2008) Work has been shown to be good for your health and employers who adopt a good approach to health, by protecting and promoting it, are important in stopping illness from occurring. This is an area in which O.Ts can provide a key role in supporting and maintaining people back into work or who are already in work to stay there. Vocational rehabilitation is important. This has been shown in the governments new mental health strategy No Health Without Mental Health (Department of Health 2011). One of the aims is working to help people with mental health problems to enter, return to employment and stay in it. The application of O.T within this area is important as our core philosophy is to enable individuals to engage in meaningful occupations, therefore there is a key role for O.Ts to play within vocational rehabilitation. The following quote demonstrates that meaningful engagement in occupation can be important, which reflects O.Ts core ethics and philosophies. Not everyone wants to be employed but almost all want to work, that is to be engaged in some kind of valued activity that uses their skills and facilitates social inclusion (College of Occupational Therapist 2007 p9). Currently within vocational rehabilitation, employment specialists are trained in advice and guidance and REC level 3 advanced certificate in recruitment practice. Employment specialities tend not to be mental health professional but have skills in vocational rehabilitation or industry experience (Waghorn 2009). O.Ts already have these skills and also can add a holistic client centred approach from an occupational perspective. O.Ts can also add an educative approach, combine medical and occupational models and use activity analysis. They can assess occupational function/performance, build therapeutic relationships, carry out psychosocial assessments and interventions, cognitive evaluation and training, help with work life balance for the client and work with clients strengths. (Waghorn et al 2009, Devline et al 2006 Joss 2001, cited in College of Occupational Therapist 2007 p15) An O.T can bring seven core skills to vocational rehabilitation: collaboration with the client e.g. building therapeutic relationships, assessment e.g. Model of Human Occupation Screening Tool, enablement, problem solving, using activity as a therapeutic tool, group work and environmental adaptations e.g. graded return to work (Duncan 2006 p45) Current themes and drivers within mental health are social inclusion, return to work agenda, recovery. Social exclusion happens when people are unemployed have poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, high crime, bad health and family breakdown (social inclusion and co-production 2011) A report called Mental Health and Social Exclusion was published in June 2004 by the Office of the deputy Prime Minister. It aimed to improve the lives of people with mental health problems by getting rid of obstacles to employment and social participation. There are five main reasons why social exclusion occurs for people with mental health problems. Firstly stigma and discrimination, in which an O.T can help by activity speaking to employers about mental health and how reasonable adjustments, could be made. An O.T can help by increasing low expectations, help promote vocational and social outcomes, help provide ongoing support whilst in employment by regular outreach appointments and help access basic services e.g. dry runs on transport, membership to sports centres (Office of the deputy Prime Minister 2004). Overall an O.T can help people remain in their jobs longer and return to employment faster and manage the work environment better by grading work, breaking down activities and rebuilding them step by step and making adaptations to the work environment for example. Another trend is recovery. Recovery is building a meaningful and satisfying life, as defined by the person themselves, whether or not there are ongoing or recurring symptoms or problems (Slade et al 2008). Recovery encourages people to develop relationships which give their life meaning. There are five stages of recovery: moratorium (withdrawal, loss, hopelessness), awareness (realisation), preparation (strengths and weakness regarding recovery), rebuilding (positive identity, goal and taking control), growth (living a meaningful life, self management of illness, resilience, positive sense of self) (Andresen, Caputi Oades, cited in Slade et al 2008). Satisfying work supports recovery and as such O.Ts can have a great impact here by ensuring clients are in jobs they really enjoy and able to cope with the work demands. By working in a client centred way, listening, help identify and prioritise personal goals for recovery; identify examples of own lived experience. Also pay attention t o goals which will enable the service user to get back into work, suggest non-mental health resources (friends, contacts, organisations), encourage self management of problems, discuss what the service user needs in terms of psychological treatment, convey an attitude of respect and continue to support, an O.T can help a service user to achieve their ideal job. The return to work agenda is about helping people in and/or return to work. O.Ts can aid this by grading work activities e.g. working hours to start with 16 hours per week and gradually increase by 5 hours per week until full time hours are achieved for example. Also by providing support whilst in job by light touch support, setting up group work activities and training the service user. A practice called place then train helps increase motivation and confidence by placing someone in work and then training them instead of the other way around. It improves employment outcomes and peoples mental and physical health over a long period of time (Centre for Mental Health 2011). Its philosophy emphases rapid job searching, individualised job placement in work followed by on-the-job training and ongoing support (Twamley et al 2008). Currently the concepts of management in vocational rehabilitation within the private mental health sector follows the following structure: Area manager Service lead Employment specialists Volunteers With the introduction of an O.T manager the following structure will be placed: O.T Manager Band 5/6 O.T Employment specialist/ Volunteers O.T.A Referrals will either come from people themselves or via the community e.g. mental health teams, doctor surgerys, job centres. With new referrals the degree of risk, impact of O.T on service user, consequences of service user not receiving treatment, length of waiting time and the appropriateness of skills and abilities will be considered. To get people on board for the change in management, people will be listened to for their points of views, concern will be shown, the manager must be approachable e.g. leaving door open and using positive body language, change will be promoting in a positive manner e.g. it will benefit the patients and questions will be encouraged, integrity and charisma will be shown, also have a good ability to communicate, set direction and unify and manage change. The Lewins stages of change (Mullins 2007) will be adopted where first unfreezing will take place followed by moving and then refreezing. Unfreezing is about getting ready to change by understanding that change is necessary and moving out of comfort zones. Its about weighing up benefits and negatives of the change. Moving or change is when people are unfrozen and decide to move toward a new way of working. This is often the hardest for people and support is needed. Refreezing is stability once the changes have been completed. These changes have been accepted and become the norm. People create new relationships and become comfortable with the new routines. The O.T manager will provide supervision to the band 5/6 O.T and have supervision from a paid outside O.T at that equivalent level. The Band 5/6 O.T will have supervision from the O.T manager and the Occupational therapy assistant (OTA) / employment specialist and volunteers will be supervised by the band 5/6 O.T. Volunteers will be looked after by the OTA. Management will be in a democratic style by listen to people opinions and having staff work with the manager, not against. Make sure that management set examples by dressing correctly, not being late for work; develop an image, project self confidence, influence others and establish personal authority (Martin et al 2010). Also address self management by managing time, self and case load e.g. size up task, knowing themselves (need for breaks, strengths and weakness), prioritising and planning control(keeping a dairy, decreasing interruptions). Bad management will be discouraged such as not resolving problems, criticising staff, poor decision making, disorganisation, failing to deal with staff issues, done give recognition, inflexibility, and have an uncaring attitude and poor communication skills (Moore et al 2006) Management will consider professional duties and responsibilities such as the code of ethics, continues professional development (competence), health and safety (risk assessments) and deal with the present. A number of factors may influence management style: confidence in staff e.g. their abilities, need for certainty (risks of handing over control), personal contribution and stress (overload, worry, pressure) (Martin et al 2010). The justification of a model relevant to vocational rehabilitation is the Model of Human Occupation (M.O.H.O). M.O.H.O looks at peoples motivation (volition), routine planning (Habituation) and the influence of environment on occupation (performance capacity). Some of these areas will be affected by the service user. Volition is the thought and feelings we adopt whilst doing things. This involved three areas: personal causation, value and interest. To change motivation these areas will need to be addressed. By looking at the service users present and potential abilities relating to work and how able they are to bring about work (what is good, right and important) e.g. security, accomplishment and interests, having positive feelings associated with working. Habituation looks at reoccurring patterns of behaviour that make up our daily routines. A service user can change their habits by learning new ways of doing occupations and by changing their perceived role to one of a worker/bread winner. Performance capacity is how the musculoskeletal, neurological, cardiopulmonary and other body systems are used during performance. If there is a problem in performance capacity, the environment must be addressed. Work is an increasing important aspect in our lifes. Some of us live and breath work spending the majority of our waking hours working. Work gives us a sense of identity, an occupation, money to spend. It also provides us with a role in the community helping others with our knowledge in a particular area. Work provides us with a purpose, includes us within society preventing social exclusion, increases self esteem and gives us a role/meaning within society. Definition Work can be seen as the idea of doing, either mental or physical, giving an economic reward, social interaction, the structuring and organisation of time, opportunity for social interaction, contribution to society and self identity (Baker Jacobs 2003) What can Occupational Therapy offer that is different? Occupational Therapy can offer an approach which looks at the whole of a person by putting the client at the centre of their treatment from an occupational perspective. Occupational therapists can also educate people, focusing on independence and ensuring participation in meaningful activities. Occupational Therapists are able to combine medical and occupations models. This means they can look at the impact that physical, social and cultural environments have on everyday activities. Patch Three The following patch will give a critical evaluation and analysis of social policy, legislation and ethical issues impacting on vocational rehabilitation in a report style. Legislation No Health without Mental Health (Department of Health 2011) The government is helping people with mental health problems to enter, stay in, and return to employment. This can by achieved by using light touch support, increase confidence in returning to and remaining in work, help manage conditions and help the interaction between appropriate work and well being. It consists of six main objectives: more people will have good mental health, more people with mental health problems will recover, more people with mental health problems will have good physical health, more people will have a positive experience of care and support, fewer people will suffer avoidable harm and fewer people will experience stigma and discrimination (Department of Health 2011 p6). Its outcome strategies is to focus on how people can be best empowered to lead the life they want to lead, to keep themselves and their families healthy, to learn and be able to work in safe and resilient communities and how practitioners can be supported to deliver what matters to service user. Occupational Therapists can provide high quality employment support which will include building confidence in returning to and retaining work, changing employers and service users beliefs, that they can perform the job and their condition is manageable. Support Interaction between appropriate work and wellbeing and help employees to make appropriate recruitment decisions and manage workplace health. New Horizons (Department of Health 2009) This mentions that work can be good for mental health and wellbeing and support recovery. Those who are unemployed are at an increased risk of developing mental illness and benefit from early support. Employment should be seen as an important outcome to the treatment of mental illness in health care settings. O.Ts can help change attitudes to mental health, can improve health and wellbeing in work, provide swift intervention when things go wrong, coordinate help tailored to individuals needs and build resilience from the early years and thought working lives. Health, Work and Wellbeing Caring for Our Future (Department of Health 2005) Suggests that work is recognised by all as important and barriers to starting, returning to or remaining in work are removed. For people to remain in and return to work, that healthcare services meet the needs of people of working age. That health is not affected by work and good quality advice and support is available. Ensure work offers opportunities to promote health and wellbeing and access to the retention of work promotes and improves population, people with health conditions and disabilities are able to optimise work opportunities and people make the right lifestyle choices from an early age. O.Ts already recognise the importance of work for their patients wellbeing and can provide the assistance necessary to fulfil their key roles in helping patients to remain in and return to work. O.Ts can help people return to work following and absence by employment advice and helping to find a suitable job by adapting the work place environment e.g. time flexibilities. National Skills Framework 5 years on (Department of Health 2004) Help to prevent social exclusion in people with mental health problems, improving their employment prospects and opposing stigma and discrimination. O.Ts can help prevent social exclusion by building confidence, motivation and skills, speak to employers about mental health and how reasonable adjustments could be made, help provide ongoing support whilst in employment and help reduce stigma and discrimination by educating people. Working for a healthier tomorrow (Department of Health 2008) Is concerned with the health of people of working age (females 16 to 59 and males 16 to 64). Identifies factors that prevent good health and changes in attitudes, behaviours and practices. Three main principal objectives: prevention of illness and promotion of health and wellbeing early intervention improvement in health of those out of work O.Ts can prevent illness and promote health and wellbeing by using activity as a therapeutic tool, ensuring early intervention and help those out of work by doing group work to build confidence, motivation and reduce anxieties. Ethics There are at least five potential ethical issues which may be encountered within vocational rehabilitation in a private mental health charity organisation. These are confidentiality, consent, autonomy and welfare, human rights, issues of power and control (College of Occupational Therapists 2005): Confidentiality Safeguarding of confidential information relating to clients, only disclose information when client has given consent, there is a legal justification or it is in public interest to prevent harm. Only disclose to third parties if there is a valid consent or legal justification to do so. Keep all records locked away securely and only make available to those who have a legitimate right or need to see them. Clients can see their records and prior to producing material, issues of confidentiality will be addressed. Use the confidentiality model: Protect (look after information), inform (ensure service user is aware), provide choice (allow service user to decide if information will be disclosed and improve (look for better ways to protect, inform and provide choice) (Department of health 2003) Consent Making sure the client has the capacity to consent. The 2005 Mental Capacity Act makes provision for people who are thought to lack capacity to make their own decisions. It has five key areas: a presumption of capacity every adult has the right to make choices and must be assumed to have capacity to do so unless it is proved otherwise; the right for individuals to be supported to make their own decisions appropriate help must be provided before anyone suggests that they cannot make their own decisions; that individuals must retain the right to make what might be seen as eccentric or unwise decisions; Best interests anything done must be in the best interest for the service user and Least restrictive intervention anything done should be the least restrictive of service users basic rights and freedoms. (Department of health 2007) Autonomy and welfare Respect clients autonomy and promote dignity, privacy and safety of client. Give patients the right to make choices and decisions about their own healthcare and independence. Provide sufficient information to enable them to give informed consent and in a language that can be understood. Make sure client understands the nature, purpose and likely effect of intervention and acknowledge refusal. Human rights A right not to be discriminated against regardless of persons religion, sex, race, colour or mental health A right to respect for private and family life e.g. medical record keeping, parental involvement, collection of data A right not to impact on the individuals freedom of thought, expression or conscience e.g. spoken language and access to interpreters Issues of power and control Respect individuals, enable client to take power and promote partnership Management of Quality Issues Quality assurance The service provided will ensure that it meets the needs and expectations of clients and communities, that there is an understanding of service delivery systems and its key services, that data is analysed, problems are identified, performance is measured and that a team approach to problem solving and quality improvement is used. Clinical Governance Involvement Make sure service users, carers and public are involved within the service by holding focus groups, open days, suggestion boxes, questionnaires, panels e.g. to find out opinions on waiting times, attitudes of staff and the physical environment Risk management Establish what could go wrong and rank this. Think how probable it is likely to occur, what can be done about it and what action should be taken if incident happens again (Health Safety executive 2006). E.g. service users deliberately harming herself in occupational therapy session or a spillage on the floor. The Healthy and Safety at Work Act (1974) states that it is the duty of the employer to ensure so far as is reasonable practical, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees (section 2 (1) Health and safety at work act 1974). Although it is the duty of the employee to take reasonable care for the health and safety of him/her and others who may be affected by his/her acts of omission and to co-operate with their employer in regard to any duty or requirements imposed (section7 Health and Safety at Work Act 1974) Clinical audit Identify topics relevant to vocational rehabilitation e.g. referral response times, set standard (3 days), collect data (computer package), analyse data (if standard not met then why) and implement change. Other examples may be how the service compares with standards set by other clinical governance activity. Clinical effectiveness Ensure that all treatment is up to date and based on evidence based practice, National Institute of Clinical Excellence and National Service Framework guidelines. Staffing and staff management All staff recruited have the skills and qualifications needed to do the job e.g. that they are Health Professional Council (HPC) registered, induct them, give supervision and appraisal and deal with poor performance. Also supervision on a regular basis and appraisal once a year. Use an indirect approach which is more centred around the person, talk less and listen more, provide a supportive relationship, ask questions, accept and use ideas, reflect and summaries ideas (Enthwistle 2000) Education, training and Continues Professional Development (CPD) Ensure mandatory training is given e.g. fire training, child protection, health and safety. Complete CPD portfolios and HPC audits; provide training and opportunities to enhance CPD such as visits to another vocational rehabilitation service. The HPC (2011) states five standards for the CPD. A registrant must maintain: an up-to-date and accurate record of their CPD activities demonstrate that their CPD activities are a mixture of learning activities relevant to current or future practice make sure that their CPD has contributed to the quality of their practice and service delivery ensure that their CPD benefits the service user present a written profile containing evidence of their CPD on request Use of information systems Use information systems to record treatment sessions that service users attend, time spent preparing treatment sessions, time spent on phone calls to service user and time spent in case discussions. Also handling patient identifiable information by applying the data protection act and locking information away. The data protection act implies that anyone collecting personal information must fairly and lawfully process it, process it for limited, specifically stated purposes, use the information in an adequate relevant and not excessive way, use information accurately, keep information on file no logger than necessary, process information in accordance with legal rights, keep information secure and never transfer information outside U.K without adequate protection (Direct Gov 2009) Patch Four The following patch will provide a reflective narrative of the learning experienced throughout the module utilising the Gibbs reflective cycle. This has been developed from Kolbs ideas and develops the features of the experience-reflection-action cycle (Jasper 2003): Description Action plan Feelings Reflective cycle Conclusion Evaluation Description The Gibbs cycle consists of six stages and asks a series of questions about the experience. Description stage is what happened, feelings stage is what where you thinking and feeling, evaluation stage summarises what is good and bad about the experience, description stage involves making sense of the situation, conclusion stage is what else could have been done and the action plan stage asks if the situation arose again, what would you do. To begin with the whole assignment seemed extremely daunting as I had never participated within a role emerging placement/role before. I had also never completed a patch work text and knew very little of both. As part of the assignment we were asked to discuss ideas with peers. I felt it was a good idea to share information with others and thought that this would be an ideal opportunity to reflect on things I was not sure about and where to go for more information. Whilst discussing ideas with my peers I was thinking how what we had discussed would fit into my assignment and in what patch. It made me feel a little more comfortable sharing with other as we could bounce ideas and thoughts off each other. I feel other peers also felt that group discussions were useful and helpful. From start to finish I felt good about discussing information and still feel that this was of great benefit to all of us. Exchanging views helped put things in some kind of order and others could help in areas where I had difficulties. I do not feel there was anything negative about this experience in general. Sharing ideas with others went well as we all had views to share. To contribute, I helped others to see what went in each patch and gave ideas about the assignment. Overall there is not much I would have done differently with this peer review work. The aim was to share and discuss information and this was done successfully. If I were to do peer review work again I would do the same by sharing ideas and information with others. During my visit to a vocational rehabilitation setting I got to see how the service was run, where referrals come from, meet staff and service users and view leaflets. Upon arrival I felt overwhelmed by information and was intrigued about the service. I was thinking how I could relate this to my assignment and what role an occupational therapist would play within such a service. The service manager, who showed me around, knew about occupational therapy as previously they had worked as an assistant in such a role. This made me feel happier as I could share some ideas with them. I felt the visit went extremely well and it was a positive learning experience. From the start I felt comfortable about visiting the service and knew I would collect lots of relevant information from it. Access to information and ideas was the most significant factor for me. Actually seeing a vocational rehabilitation service running was a great inspiration and thought provoking for me, as I could see where parts of my assignment would fit in. I feel the whole visit went well and managed to collect a lot of relevant information. To complete patch work two we were asked to produce a leaflet aimed at our intended service users. I found this patch difficult because selecting relevant information was not easy e.g. font, colours, headings, content, pictures. When I first started the leaflet I had previous knowledge from another module, so had an idea how to construct the framework. I was thinking what type of content would go into the framework of the leaflet and how. Others mentioned that the leaflet should be easy to read and with bullet points, pictures and a calming background. I felt this would be a good idea, by aiming the leaflet at my service user group in particular. I thought that the leaflet was starting to take shape and it was aimed at who it was intended for. To start with I felt a little lost as to what to so but with help from my peer review group I eventual found a way. The most significant thing to me was being able to reflect ideas with other people about the leaflet. I feel that putting the leaflet together was a good experience as it has taught me how to present information to a targeted audience by using easy to understand phrases rather than jargon. Also working in peer review groups was a good experience as we were able to share ideas with each other and share information. The only thing that didnt go so well was working out how to transfer the leaflet from publisher to a word document, also slimming down the content without vital information being lost. I feel the leaflet went well and managed to collect and produce the correct information. Others did help by offering encouragement and ideas which aided me in producing the leaflet. I realise now that I should have consulted my peer group earlier to starting the leaflet as their ideas helped and guided me. To complete patch three we were asked to critically evaluate and analyse social policy, legislation and ethical issues impacting vocational rehabilitation. I found writing this patch extremely difficult as I had no idea of legislation, ethical issues and quality issues relating to this subject. When I started this patch I felt very nervous and worried as to how I would find such information. I was wondering how I would go about doing this patch and what was involved. When I was looking for information I found a vast array. I had to sieve through relevant legislation and apply it to

Jihad - A Holy War Essay -- essays research papers

Jihad It was once a word unfamiliar to American ears. But in recent years it has become all too familiar. The actions of Muslim militants and terrorists have seared the word into American consciousness. Yet even with thousands of innocent civilians killed on American soil by Islamic terrorists, the full significance of the Muslim concept of jihad has not been grasped by the American public. In the days after September 11, 2001, American leaders rushed to portray Islam as a peaceful religion that had been "hijacked" by a fanatical band of terrorists. One hopes that these assurances were merely tactical—that nobody was meant to believe them and that they were meant to assure the Muslim world that the inevitable American reprisals were not directed at their religion as a whole. If the world Muslim community perceived America as attacking Islam in general then the duty of every Muslim to fight for his religion—the duty of jihad—would have been invoked on a broad scale. The war against terrorism, instead of simmering with occasional flare-ups, like the Cold War, would have boiled over into a global conflagration, with the Muslim countries of the world—1.2 billion strong—mobilizing against America and the West. Muslim apologists also rushed forward to assure the public that Islam was a peaceful religion. They disingenuously declared that the word Islam means "peace." And they tried to portray the terrorists as a fringe group outside the mainstream of Islam. These were lies. The usual meaning of Islam in Arabic is not "peace" but "submission." And if the terrorists were so far outside the mainstream, why did Muslims all over the world burst into joyful, spontaneous celebrations when the hijacked jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon? Why are Islamic governments afraid to show "too much" public support for the war against terrorism? Further, why are all the governments that covertly support terrorism centered in the Muslim world? The truth is that Islam is not a religion of peace. This is not to say that every Muslim is violent at heart. Many are not. Muslims have the same aspirations for living peaceful lives that people have the world over. But they also have the same potential for violence as others, and Islam as a religion and an ideology seeks to exploit that potential. Thoug... ...volutionary movements. The conflict with militant Islam may last a long time—centuries, potentially—since even if curing Muslim society of its violent tendencies is possible, it would involve ripping out or otherwise neutralizing a tendency that has dominated Muslim culture since the days of its founder. This is not an easy task, for Muslims willing to make the change would be portrayed as traitors to their religion, amid renewed calls to practice Islam in its original, pure, and more violent form in order to regain the favor of God. The signs of the times suggest that we are, indeed, in for a "clash of civilizations" that will be neither brief nor bloodless. But what also is known is that God has a plan for history and that his grace can work miracles. It is yet possible that—through one means or another—God will bring about a more peaceful world in which militant Islam either is not a threat or nowhere near the threat that it is today. If this is to happen, our cooperation with God’s grace will require prayer, courage, resourcefulness, and a realistic understanding of the threat we are facing. Until then there can be no illusions about Islam and its endless jihad.

Woman of the Year: Queen Elizabeth the Second :: essays research papers

Woman of the Year: 1953-Queen Elizabeth II   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  From the day she was born, the life of Queen Elizabeth II shows that she deserved to receive the title â€Å"Woman of the Year.† She had practical intelligence since she was a kid and she respected peoples opinions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Queen Elizabeth II was born on April 21, 1926 at the London home of her mother's parents, Lord and Lady Strathmore. She was baptized at Buckingham Palace and named Elizabeth Alexandra Mary five weeks later. Elizabeth's father was Albert, the Duke of York. He was the second son of King George V. When his dad died in 1936, his brother was supposed to become king but he resigned. So he became king. Her mother was Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. She was a member of the Scottish aristocracy. Her sister Margaret Rose was born on August 21, 1930, when she was 4 years old in Glamis Castle. Her grandparents were George V and Queen Mary, and Lord and Lady Strathmore.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Elizabeth and her sister were homed schooled. She was taught by Miss Marion Crawford, a young Scottish woman. At the age of 5, she usually woke up at 6 a.m. and went out for riding lessons. After that, they had lunch, lessons in French, voice and piano. In the afternoon she would play in the garden, usually with her sister and Miss Crawford. She became heiress to the throne at the age of ten. She had to learn court etiquette and diplomatic practice from her grandmother, Queen Mary. She studied the geography and history of the Commonwealth countries and the U.S. Elizabeth went to Eton College for private lessons in law. She was training for future duties. Being a princess was not easy. She had to prepare for a hard life, never make mistakes, never look bored and never be sick if possible.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Elizabeth grew up at the families London home, a large Victorian House on 145 Picadilly and at the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park. When her dad became King they moved to Buckingham Palace. It was more like a museum than a house. Elizabeth spent their holidays with their grandparents on both sides. When she spent it with the Strathmore it would sometimes be at the Glamis Castle. It was a rugged, rambling old Scottish fortress. â€Å"It looked like something out of a child's adventure stories-paradise of echoing rooms, long passage and mysterious stairways.† (Trease 1953, 231) Elizabeth enjoyed exploring the castle when she was young. She was 13 when World War II occurred. A year later bombs started falling on London. Elizabeth and her sister had to go to safety

Cadmium And Sewage Sludge :: essays research papers

Cadmium and sewage sludge This essay concentrates on the heavy metal cadmium, and its occurrence in the environment, its pathways into and out of the human body and its movement into and out of Sewage sludge. Firstly, I will provide a clear definition of the Heavy Metal Cadmium. What is Cadmium? Cadmium is a naturally occurring element in the earth’s crust. Pure cadmium is a soft silver-white metal, but this form is not common in the environment. Rather, cadmium is most often encountered in combination with other elements such as oxygen (cadmium oxide), chlorine (cadmium chloride), or sulphur (cadmium sulphide). These compounds are all stable solids that do not evaporate, although cadmium oxide is often found as part of small particles present in air.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Most cadmium is obtained as a by-product from the smelting of zinc, lead or copper ores. Cadmium has a number of industrial applications, but it is used mostly in metal plating, pigments, batteries, and plastics. Cadmium in the Environment Small quantities of cadmium occur naturally in air, water, soil and food. For most people, food is the primary source of cadmium exposure, since food materials tend to take up and retain cadmium. For example, plants take up cadmium from soil; fish take up cadmium from water, and so on. It is introduced into the environment from mining and smelting operations. Other cadmium emissions are from fossil fuel use, fertilizer application, sewage sludge disposal or galvanized pie corrosion. The largest source of these cadmium releases into the general environment is the burning of fossil fuels (such as coal or oil) or the incineration of waste materials. Cadmium may also escape into the air from zinc, lead or copper smelters. Working in or living close to a major source of airborne emissions such as these may result in higher than average exposure. Pathways into the human body Food and Drink   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cadmium can enter the blood by absorption from the stomach or intestines after ingestion of food or water. The amount of Cadmium ingested by an individual within a population can differ greatly due to dietary habits. For example, an individual who consumes a large amount of brown crabmeat or vegetables grown on land which is fertilised with sewage sludge are likely to have intakes of cadmium significantly above the average population level.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Only a small percentage of cadmium ingested with the food intake is absorbed, approximately 6%. However there are many factors, which can affect this figure, namely, physiological, such as age and the content of the diet.

Classic Drucker Book Report

Classic Drucker Book Report Recently, I had the pleasure of reading â€Å"Classic Drucker†. The book contains 15 articles from Peter Drucker that were printed in the â€Å"Harvard Business Review†. I chose a few takeaways with an explanation on why I chose them and how they can apply to your career. 1. â€Å"Whenever you make a key decision, write it down. † Next to it, write down what you expect the end result will be. † As you compile these decisions, review each on after an extended period of time.You will be surprised of your results and over time you may get increasingly accurate on your expected results. 2. â€Å"Mathematicians are born, but everyone can learn trigonometry. † Some people are just naturally more intelligent than others but at the same time, we can learn some of the components of what they know, and know those components just as much as they can. 3. â€Å"Manners enable two people to work together whether they like each other or not. † The words â€Å"please† and â€Å"thanks† go a long way in the business world. I even go as far as saying thanks when someone gives me a new assignment.At times they seem surprised but to be genuinely appreciative will show commitment to the team. 4. â€Å"Too many people work in ways that are not their ways, and that almost guarantees nonperformance†. Your peers may have work habits that are not the same as yours but that doesn't make them non productive. Productivity revolves around results, not one's arrival time, or the fact that a person prefers to wear headphones while they work. 5. â€Å"To be effective in an organization, a person's values must be compatible with the organization's values†.I interpreted this to mean, I am going to be much more successful if my values are aligned with my companies. Doing so will ensure that I am committed and passionate about my work, which has a better chance of leading to success. I wouldn't feel co mfortable working for a company that practiced in lying and cheating to achieve its objectives. 6. â€Å"It is incumbent on the people who work with them (bosses) to observer them, to find out how they work, and to adapt themselves to what makes their bosses more effective†.It has always been a goal of mine to keep all of my work off my boss’s plate, and to take responsibility for everything involving the products that I work on. The entire product might not be my responsibility but the more I can take on, the more my boss can be strategic. 7. â€Å"The theory of business becomes â€Å"culture. † But culture is no substitute for discipline, and the theory of the business is a discipline†. A company with a good culture that you are comfortable with might not necessarily relate to results.Culture doesn't necessarily meet deadlines. Tasks and rules seem to have a better chance of meeting guidelines than â€Å"family business†. 8. â€Å"All events but the truly unique require a generic solution†. I think of how the Product Development Process that has recently been applied to all of the products where I work and how every single one fits in at some phase of that process. The products had a problem being completed. Now we see the end with the implementation of a generic process. 9. Temps are a good way to avoid rules and regulations for employers.A highly trained temp can do the job without the corporate commitment and the need to adhere to hiring/firing HR standards that apply to every day employees. The employees are also easily manageable since many of them are already managed by their agencies. 10. â€Å"Leadership knows something someone else doesn't†. This is the most important takeaway for me. Some people think leadership means type-a personality or being stern, but knowledge truly is power. Knowing something someone else doesn't puts you in the front, with an opportunity to teach and display, some functions o f what many people consider leaders.

Tata Motors Going Global

TATA MOTORS—GOING GLOBAL The wave of liberalization, privatization and globalization, which started sweeping India since the early 1990s, gave Tata Motors (established in 1945) a new direction in the path of globalization. The Tata Motors firstly, realized that if it wants to grow then it cannot afford to keep its business connected solely to the fortunes of one country. Secondly, with the dismantling of import restrictions in the near future or it the rupee begins to gain ground then India may not continue to have the low-cost manufacturing advantage which it has enjoyed so far. In that scenario, a transnational presence across countries that could offer greater cost advantages for manufacturing, will pay off. Thirdly, the automotive business is highly competitive and the competitiveness depends on economies of scale, quality and efficiency which could directly improve if the organization enters the foreign markets. The question that came in the minds of the senior management at Tata Motors was— â€Å"Should we remain an exporter of vehicles, which we have been doing since 1961 or should we venture into the international automobile market as a company that can match the best in the business? The answer was to widen its foreign campaign to more than just exports. As a result, recognizing the need to integrate its international strategy with its domestic one, the company split its previously independent international business arm into the two business units—the Passenger Car Business Unit (PCBU) and the Commercial Vehicle Business Unit (CVBU). T he company’s passenger car range comprises the hatchback Indica, the Indigo Sedan and the Marina, its station wagon variant, in petrol and diesel versions. The Tata Sumo, its rural variant, the Spacio and the Tata Safari (the country’s first sports utility vehicle) are the company’s multi-utility offerings. The company’s Commercial Vehicle Business Unit (CVBU) has over 130 models of light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles ranging from two tonnes to 40 tonnes, buses ranging from 12-seaters to 60-seaters, tippers, special purpose vehicles, oil-road vehicles and defence vehicles. Dr. V. Sumantran, Executive Director, PCBU, says, â€Å"The company has now embarked on a road where we have made exports an integral part of our business. We do not think of sales outside the country as a separate activity. It is now integrated within the mission of each of its businesses. † Ravi Kant, Executive Director, CVBU, says, â€Å"In a cyclical business such as ours, it is important that we hedge against cyclicality. International business offers an opportunity as different countries go through peaks and troughs in demand at different points in time. Our capacity utilization is more effective and risks of downturns can be mitigated. † The two units have classified different markets in terms of size, growth opportunities, product segments and target volumes. After analysis of markets the company has decided to focus on 15 to 20 key countries, where the company will have a significant presence in terms of volumes and market shares, against being present as an exporter in 70 countries. Says Praveen Kadle, Tata Motors Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Affairs, â€Å"Tata Motors does not plan to be all over the world. Supply will follow demand and the company will need to address the markets tor different vehicles as stand-alone projects. For example, the compact- sized Indica will be marketed in countries where the company perceives a substantial market for it, like it did in Europe. The same goes for our commercial vehicles business. † The implementation of new business strategy involves three stages—product upgradation, sales and distribution processes, and deeper penetration into foreign markets. Tata Motors has taken a number of initiatives to strengthen both product reliability and durability. Through its subsidiaries and joint ventures, the company is engaged in engineering and automotive solutions, automotive vehicle components manufacturing and supply chain activities, machine tools and factory automation solutions, high-precision tooling and plastic and electronic components for automotive and computer applications, and automotive retailing and service operations. The company also draws on the resources of leading international design and styling houses like the Institute of Development in Automotive Engineering, SPA, Italy and Stile Bertoni, Italy. The company has been successful in Sri Lanka and Malaysia where the installation of a sales process system and face-to-face customer meets through road shows and service workshops have started giving results. In order to enter foreign markets the company is following three routes. The first is the traditional method of exports, at which the company has been quite successful, notching up export revenue of Rs. 969 crores in the first nine months of FY 2004—05, recording a growth of 41 per cent from sales in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The second is the setting up of assembly operations in foreign markets. Tata Motors first used this strategy when it set up its first assembly operation in Malaysia in 1974. Since then, the company has successfully used it for expansion into Malaysia, Bangladesh, Senegal, South Africa and Ukraine by way of setting up assembly operations there through its distributors. The third is the route of acquisition and alliances. Tarn Motors entered into a tie-up with MG Rover, U. K. , to supply 1,00,000 Indica to be badged as City Rover. Highlighting the importance of the tie-up, Dr. V. Sumantran, points out that the Rover agreement has been an important step in helping Tata Motors to gain very quick access to a fairly large market. ‘Working alone in this area would have taken us much longer to create a distribution network. The exposure that the company and the products have received through the agreement validates the belief that we have arrived at a significant milestone in promoting the Tata brand,† elaborates Dr. Sumantran. It acquired Daewoo Commercial Vehicles, S. Korea, in 2004, keeping the synergies in mind which are quite significant—a presence in the 250 to 400 HP range of trucks is what the Korean company brings to the table, as this complements the existing product range of Tata Motors which delivers vehicles up to 210 HP. The process gave not just a manufacturing asset base, but access to the market through an already strong brand identity. In 2005, it acquired a 21 per cent stake in Hispano Carrocera, a reputed Spanish bus and coach manufacturer, with an option to acquire the remaining stake as well. Hispano’s presence is being expanded in other markets. Today, Tata Motors is India’s largest automobile company, with revenues of Rs. 20, 483 crores (USD 4. 7 billion) in 2004—05, and is the world’s fifth largest medium and heavy commercial vehicle manufacturer. Its immediate goal is to achieve a 20 per cent contribution to its overall revenue from its international businesses by 2006. The leading global auto majors, for whom anywhere from 30—50 per cent of their business accrues from overseas sales, Tata Motors is still a long way off, but Mr. Kadle believes that with its aggressive growth strategy a contribution of around 35 per cent maybe achievable in the next five-six years. Questions 1. What are the objectives that drove Tata Motors towards globalization? 2. What are the entry strategies that are being followed by Tata Motors in order to capture the foreign markets? 3. Discuss the logic behind the entry strategies that are being followed by Tata Motors. 4. In your opinion to what extent Mr. Kadle’s belief of overseas sales contributing 35 per cent of overall revenue, in the next five-six years, appears attainable?