Author: Custom Essay

Current Issues in the Behavioral Healthcare System

In the course project assignments of the past four weeks, you have written on various topics dealing with trends and issues in the behavioral healthcare system. Those weekly project assignments can be used as references for writing your final research paper.

In addition, read and incorporate the following articles from the EBSCO host database into your paper:

• Deakin, A. (2004, November). Finding your organization’s hidden        treasure. Behavioral Health Management, 24(6), 27-29.
• Droppa, D., & Luczak, R. (2004, January). Collaboration, technology,

  and outcomes—A recipe to improve service delivery.

  Behavioral Health Management, 24(1), 41-44.

To complete the research paper, you will need to include an introduction and conclusion section as well as a title page and reference section. The title of the research paper will be the Current Issues in the Behavioral Healthcare System.

Your final paper is due for submission. The paper should adhere to the following guidelines:

• The length of the paper should be eight to ten double-spaced pages (not including the title and reference pages).
• The main sections should have a:
  • Title page
  • Introduction
  • Body of the paper (with subheadings)
  • Conclusion
  • Reference page(s)
• The paper must use the APA format for citing sources and references.

Your final paper introduction (one page) should include the following points:

• An overview of the research paper
• The purpose or objective of the research paper

The body of the paper (five to six pages) should address each of the following topics using information learned in the course, in combination with outside references:

• Based on your previous assignments and review of the literature, what are some of the major issues faced by today’s behavioral healthcare system? How have the current and future trends that are evolving in the industry addressed some of those issues?
• Do you think there is a difference between the changing trends taking place in the private sector and that of public behavioral healthcare inpatient facilities? Based on your understanding about behavioral health services and the populations being served by them, do you agree that both private and public organizations are able to provide the necessary clinical services? Provide a rationale in support of your response.
• In behavioral healthcare, outcomes are the established norm for measuring the success or lack of services. What are some of the major challenges in collecting the data needed to support and report behavioral health outcomes? Provide a rationale for your response.
• Quality of care and services is an important part of an outcome-based strategy. The objective behind maintaining and improving quality is to provide competent and efficient services to consumers. In your opinion, do the current regulatory and accreditation standards for the behavioral health industry help to meet that objective? How?

Your conclusion (one to two pages) should include the following points:

• What conclusions can you draw from your research that would demonstrate the role played by behavioral health in the healthcare industry?
• What changes would you like to bring to today’s behavioral healthcare system in order to resolve the current issues identified?
• Based on your literature review, if you were asked to conduct a formal research project on any of the topics discussed in the research paper, what would your choice be and why?

At the beginning of the online era, many pundits—including The Economist—concluded that the online retail industry was an unpromising one for firms seeking competitive advantage: The explosive growth of the Internet promises a new age of perfectly competitive markets. With perfect information about prices and products at their fingertips, consumers can quickly and easily find the best deals. In this brave new world, retailers’ profit margins will be competed away, as they are all forced to price at cost.1 Things have not quite turned out the way the The Economist predicted. Prices have not been driven to marginal cost—indeed, the “law of one price” does not hold in online markets.2 Moreover, major players with identifiable brands and pricing power over consumers, such as Amazon, have emerged from the sea of competitors in both U.S. and European online markets. What innovations in pricing strategy are required for a firm to be successful in an e-retail market? This article uses insights gleaned from five cases studies of pricing in online markets to highlight several innovative pricing strategies for e-retailers. The cases are drawn from the experiences of online retailers at the price comparison site, Kelkoo. A subsidiary of Yahoo!, Kelkoo boasts over 4 million visits per month from consumers within the UK alone, and price listings by over 4,000 retailers, including more than 40 of the 50 largest Internet retailers in the UK. It is the largest price comparison site in all of Europe. Based on the lessons drawn from the cases, we offer a “dashboard” for online pricing—a set of tools for assessing (and possibly reshaping) pricing strategies in the highly dynamic online environment. While our focus is on innovative pricing strategies for online markets, the prerequisites for competitive advantage in offline markets are still operative in online space.3 Brand recognition, firm reputation, and store location (placement on the screen) are important to a successful online business. However there are unique features of online markets that necessitate innovations relative to traditional offline markets, and it is important to assess how these features impact successful online pricing strategies. The online marketplace differs from physical markets in a number of significant respects. One of the most important differences is the ease with which online consumers and rival retailers may access comparative information about seller characteristics and prices.4 The fact that search engines, shopbots, and price comparison sites provide both consumers and firms with a wealth of information—merely at the cost of a click—is a two-edged sword. While consumer access to price information tends to sharpen price competition, firms’ access to this information creates opportunities for innovative pricing strategies that are not generally feasible (or even necessary) in offline markets. Online customers often search at the product level rather than by store. By the time a consumer is ready to make a purchase, she will likely have compared a variety of attributes, including prices, at alternative e-retail outlets. This fundamentally changes the nature of competition faced by e-retailers, who increasingly compete at the individual product level rather than across broad product categories. Consumers are much more selective in online markets. Accordingly, specialization in the provision of niche products, where competition may be weaker, can be a profitable strategy in online markets. Thus, in contrast to offline markets, pricing and yield management strategies in online markets must be product specific. For offline firms looking to tap into online markets, a fundamental rethinking of time-honored pricing policies—such as applying the same markup to similar products sold at the store—is required. The timing and tailoring of prices to specific models of products is the key to successful pricing in online markets. In online markets, it is technically feasible—even strategically desirable—to frequently change the prices of individual products. With the tempo of price changes by competitors being measured in days rather than weeks, price management requires a dashboard to monitor and respond to the dynamic nature of online markets.

 

To summarize, online markets are considerably more fluid than their offline counterparts because consumers are increasingly searching for specific models of products. Additionally, the number of rivals selling a particular product—and their prices—change almost daily. Further adding to the dynamics, for many products sold online the pace of technological change translates into dramatically shortened product life cycles. A one-size-fits-all pricing policy, prescribed from on high, is unlikely to yield satisfactory results in online markets. Successful e-retailers use a variety of innovative, dynamic, and product-specific pricing strategies.

At the beginning of the online era, many pundits—including The Economist—concluded that the online retail industry was an unpromising one for firms seeking competitive advantage: The explosive growth of the Internet promises a new age of perfectly competitive markets. With perfect information about prices and products at their fingertips, consumers can quickly and easily find the best deals. In this brave new world, retailers’ profit margins will be competed away, as they are all forced to price at cost.1 Things have not quite turned out the way the The Economist predicted. Prices have not been driven to marginal cost—indeed, the “law of one price” does not hold in online markets.2 Moreover, major players with identifiable brands and pricing power over consumers, such as Amazon, have emerged from the sea of competitors in both U.S. and European online markets. What innovations in pricing strategy are required for a firm to be successful in an e-retail market? This article uses insights gleaned from five cases studies of pricing in online markets to highlight several innovative pricing strategies for e-retailers. The cases are drawn from the experiences of online retailers at the price comparison site, Kelkoo. A subsidiary of Yahoo!, Kelkoo boasts over 4 million visits per month from consumers within the UK alone, and price listings by over 4,000 retailers, including more than 40 of the 50 largest Internet retailers in the UK. It is the largest price comparison site in all of Europe. Based on the lessons drawn from the cases, we offer a “dashboard” for online pricing—a set of tools for assessing (and possibly reshaping) pricing strategies in the highly dynamic online environment. While our focus is on innovative pricing strategies for online markets, the prerequisites for competitive advantage in offline markets are still operative in online space.3 Brand recognition, firm reputation, and store location (placement on the screen) are important to a successful online business. However there are unique features of online markets that necessitate innovations relative to traditional offline markets, and it is important to assess how these features impact successful online pricing strategies. The online marketplace differs from physical markets in a number of significant respects. One of the most important differences is the ease with which online consumers and rival retailers may access comparative information about seller characteristics and prices.4 The fact that search engines, shopbots, and price comparison sites provide both consumers and firms with a wealth of information—merely at the cost of a click—is a two-edged sword. While consumer access to price information tends to sharpen price competition, firms’ access to this information creates opportunities for innovative pricing strategies that are not generally feasible (or even necessary) in offline markets. Online customers often search at the product level rather than by store. By the time a consumer is ready to make a purchase, she will likely have compared a variety of attributes, including prices, at alternative e-retail outlets. This fundamentally changes the nature of competition faced by e-retailers, who increasingly compete at the individual product level rather than across broad product categories. Consumers are much more selective in online markets. Accordingly, specialization in the provision of niche products, where competition may be weaker, can be a profitable strategy in online markets. Thus, in contrast to offline markets, pricing and yield management strategies in online markets must be product specific. For offline firms looking to tap into online markets, a fundamental rethinking of time-honored pricing policies—such as applying the same markup to similar products sold at the store—is required. The timing and tailoring of prices to specific models of products is the key to successful pricing in online markets. In online markets, it is technically feasible—even strategically desirable—to frequently change the prices of individual products. With the tempo of price changes by competitors being measured in days rather than weeks, price management requires a dashboard to monitor and respond to the dynamic nature of online markets.

 

To summarize, online markets are considerably more fluid than their offline counterparts because consumers are increasingly searching for specific models of products. Additionally, the number of rivals selling a particular product—and their prices—change almost daily. Further adding to the dynamics, for many products sold online the pace of technological change translates into dramatically shortened product life cycles. A one-size-fits-all pricing policy, prescribed from on high, is unlikely to yield satisfactory results in online markets. Successful e-retailers use a variety of innovative, dynamic, and product-specific pricing strategies.

he United States was a young country in 1790, when Henry Wood founded a company to import and distribute English-milled flour for baking. The company prospered and took on other partners, becoming a joint-stock ownership. In 1895, the company introduced a new brand of premium flour, King Arthur Flour, which was a commercial success. When retail sales to home cooks declined, the company started selling to commercial bakers. Over the years, markets for flour changed, the product line expanded, and new owners came in. When the company encountered problems, it made changes, but, by the 1970s, the company faced significant financial pressures. The company’s president made several critical decisions, including selling off all product lines except the core flour business. He moved the company from Boston, Massachusetts, to a less expensive location in Vermont. Then, in 1996, the company became an employee-owned firm. More than 220 years after its founding, The King Arthur Flour Co., Inc., is still in business (and is still selling flour), making it one of the oldest companies in the United States (King Arthur, 2013).

Through more than two centuries of operation, King Arthur experienced successes and failures. When problems arose, the company took actions that turned out to be mostly successful. Like King Arthur, virtually all companies with a long history have experienced periods when growth stalled. Recognizing and analyzing a stall is a critical factor in determining what action will be effective.

As you review the article “When Growth Stalls,” (located in this week’s resources) consider the pervasiveness of this problem. Also consider how a growth stall fits a systems pattern, or archetype. Consider the systems archetypes that Senge reviews in Chapter 6, “Nature’s Templates: Identifying the Patterns that Control Events.” Review the articles “Towards the Definition and Use of a Core Set of Archetypal Structures in System Dynamics” and “The System Archetypes” (located in this week’s resources) to view examples in the use of archetypes to analyze business problems.

As you review the case study “Bayonne Packaging, Inc.,” (located in this week’s resources) consider the factors that contributed to the company’s first loss in 10 years. Think about how you would use common systems archetypes to analyze Bayonne’s situation. Consider what those diagrams could reveal in understanding the company’s performance problems and which systems strategies could resolve these problems.

A project manager needs to understand the importance of the acquisition of capital goods. There are many choices for capital good procurement, including buying or leasing new equipment, or buying used equipment. Describe an example from the text or your personal professional experience where your project or organization had to procure capital goods for strategic reasons.  What was the type of equipment (new, used) and how was it purchased?

 

 

Discussion 2

 

Suitability and reliability are two examples of quality in terms of buying materials, goods or services.  Provide an example of a “best buy” from your professional experience where quality aspects were not met in accordance to the text definition of quality dimensions

A project manager needs to understand the importance of the acquisition of capital goods. There are many choices for capital good procurement, including buying or leasing new equipment, or buying used equipment. Describe an example from the text or your personal professional experience where your project or organization had to procure capital goods for strategic reasons.  What was the type of equipment (new, used) and how was it purchased?

 

 

Discussion 2

 

Suitability and reliability are two examples of quality in terms of buying materials, goods or services.  Provide an example of a “best buy” from your professional experience where quality aspects were not met in accordance to the text definition of quality dimensions. What aspect of quality could be improved for future projects? Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings.

Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings.

Reflect on two to three (2-3) TV shows in which characters demonstrate aggression or violence. Consider the context in which this aggression or violence occurred and ways in which it can lead to desensitization.

Write a one to two (1-2) page paper in which you:

1. Briefly describe at least one (1) episode of a television show in which you observed aggression or violence.
2. Identify the context in which the character(s) demonstrated aggression or violence. Include the gender, age, and culture of the character(s) involved in the aggressive or violent act(s).
3. Discuss at least two (2) possible reasons why the selected TV episode included aggression or violence. Provide a rationale for your response.
4. Describe at least two (2) ways that media violence can cause desensitization in people. Justify your response.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Develop an increased understanding of the dynamic between society and individuals.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in social psychology.
• Write clearly and concisely about social psychology using proper grammar and mechanics.

In at least 1000 words typed in proper APA format (including a 12-point font, double spacing, a title page, a reference page, in-text citations, a running header, page numbers, and an abstract page), you will write a review on any psychological disorder (can be an anxiety disorder, a mood disorder, a personality disorder, a somatoform disorder, a dissociative disorder, or even schizophrenia) of your choice.

One friendly piece of advice here is to choose a specific disorder versus a category of disorders. For example, instead of trying to do your essay on all personality disorders, you might choose just one personality disorder, such as avoidant personality disorder. That should make the paper more manageable.

First, you should discuss what the disorder is (general description, types if different types exist, symptoms), and how one gets the disorder (possible causes, risk factors).

Second, you should choose four of the perspectives listed in the textbook–psychodynamic, humanistic, behavioral, cognitive, group, biological–and discuss how a psychologist/doctor from each perspective would treat a patient with your disorder.

Part of this assignment will require you to enter the Grantham library. You should consider contacting the librarian (well before the due date) for help if you do not understand what peer-reviewed sources are or if you do not understand how to use the library functionally at Grantham.

You must include two peer-reviewed sources from an electronic journal within your essay, using at least some information from each of these sources within your writing. These sources should come from the Grantham library. You may use other resources, but at least two of your sources must come from the library and be peer-reviewed sources.

Your assignment should be at least 1000 words in length and should be presented in APA format, including a title page, in-text citations, a running header, page numbers, double spacing, and a reference page. Your assignment should use terms/references directly from the chapter, and all extra outside research must be properly cited.

one of the following issues that court administrators face:

•

one of the following issues that court administrators face:

• Volume of cases in the court system

• Diversity of judges

• Language barriers and availability of court-interpreters

• Attorney-related issues

Write a 700- to 1,050-word paper to describe the efforts that court administrators have made to address or solve the issue. Have the efforts been successful in addressing the issue?

 

 

• Diversity of judges

• Language barriers and availability of court-interpreters

• Attorney-related issues

Write a 700- to 1,050-word paper to describe the efforts that court administrators have made to address or solve the issue. Have the efforts been successful in addressing the issue?

 

 

‘How important is the ‘nation-state’ as a political unit in the global political system today?’ Discuss. Provide examples.

Imagine that you are the HR Director at your current organization or an organization with which you are familiar. As the HR Director, you must use different employment law requirements to create methods and policies that support the promotion of a diverse workforce. Select one (1) job opportunity that you have held or with which you are familiar within the same organization for this scenario.

(Note: You may create and / or make all necessary assumptions needed for the completion of these assignments. In your original work, you may use aspects of existing processes from either your current or a former place of employment. However, you must remove any and all identifying information that would enable someone to discern the organization[s] that you have used.)

Write a ten to twelve (10-12) page paper in which you:

1. Develop three (3) recruitment methods for the job opportunity in question, and suggest two (2) ways that each method helps one to avoid discriminatory practices. Justify your response.
2. Outline an application process that details the organization’s method of accepting all applications, as well as its method of validating applicants’ attainment of the required credentials (e.g., reviewing resumes, collecting transcripts, verifying certifications, etc.) for the job opportunity.
3. Develop a five- (5) step procedure for the HR Department to use in order to maintain all applicants’ records in case a discriminatory charge occurs.
4. Decide on three (3) background checks that the HR Department must utilize, and justify the relevance of each background check for the job opportunity.
5. Choose three (3) employment tests (e.g., drug tests, medical examinations, HIV tests, generic tests, polygraphs, honesty tests, psychological tests, intelligence and skills tests, and physical fitness, etc.) that the HR Department should use. Justify the relevance of each selected employment test to the job requirements.
6. Formulate a policy for making both the hiring and promotional decisions related to the job opportunity. Specify the major challenges and potential adverse impact of using subjective criteria for assessing soft skills. Next, suggest one (1) plan to mitigate the adverse impact. Justify your suggestion.
7. Recommend two (2) types of reasonable accommodations for both disabled applicants and applicants needing special religious considerations. Argue two (2) legal reasons for not being able to sufficiently provide such reasonable accommodation for each group.
8. Select one (1) case in which a court charged an organization with an affirmative action violation and one (1) case in which a court charged the organization with not managing harassment issues more expeditiously. Recommend an action plan geared toward preventing the issues addressed in both cases within your selected organization. Justify your recommendation.
9. Choose three (3) work-life conflicts that the HR Director should consider within the selected organization. Then, outline a policy geared toward resolving each conflict through the use of related employment laws. Justify your response.
10. Use at least four (4) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Determine employment laws that apply to the selection, development, and management of employees.
• Evaluate policies and processes that promote a diverse workforce.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in employment law.
• Write clearly and concisely about employment law using proper writing mechanic.