Why do people choose to take Complementary Medicines and Therapies Essay

Why do people choose to take Complementary Medicines and Therapies - Essay Example Here the emphses re rther different. While mny of the topics my seem fmilir from the policy driven gend-regultion, the evidence bse, use of CM by generl prctitioners (GPs), nurses nd others-they re treted in very different wy. ssumptions re chllenged; motives nd strtegies re explored. CM is first nd foremost exmined s topic worthy of study in its own right, s historiclly specific socil product. Phenomen re studied in their socil context. It is this sociologicl rther thn policy-driven strting point tht underpins this study. While the reserch covered herein my provide insights of prcticl benefits, tht is not usully its fundmentl purpose. I have to express my thankfulness to people who participated in my research. They were of great help as through the interviews I conducted it became possible to complete the research. I am also acknowledged to my professor, Mr INSERT THE NAME, who instructed me during composition of my thesis. Also I have to mention my wife/parents, who helped through writing and research. I feel honoured to know such great people and am happy that this topic is of such a broad interest. Complementry nd lterntive medicine (CM) is now mjor prt of the helthcre system in ll dvnced societies. It is lso common prt of discourse in medicine nd helthcre. This growth of interest hs only prtilly been mtched by cdemic study of it. Indeed, over recent yers there hs been n incresing recognition tht CM is essentilly under-reserched (House of Lords 2000). However, with this recognition hs come n incresing concentrtion on prticulr form of reserch-tht gered towrds the production of n evidence bse nd/or n immedite relevnce to policy nd prctice. There ws n extrordinry growth in the use of complementry nd lterntive therpies nd medicines (CM) in the ltter hlf of the twentieth century in Europe, ustrli, Cnd nd the US (Ernst 2000; Sks 2001; Wootton nd Sprber 2001). This pper sets out some of the explntions tht hve been presented to help understnd this extrordinry growth nd, wherever possible, exmines empiricl studies to evlute, modify or extend those explntions The globl extent of the growth nd the globl chnge in sttus nd nomenclture mens tht the reson for the chnges cn not be found by exmining specific country's helthcre systems. Nor cn it be found by exmining helth providers or even by looking t people who re sick. Sick people do turn to CM, but the dys when doctors could dismiss lterntive medicine s the lst refuge of the terminlly ill re long

Work Life Balance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Work Life Balance - Essay Example From the research a work-life balance is a metaphor through which work is understood in terms of life. However, what constitutes a balance between work and rest of life to one individual may not be the same for another. As employers and policy makers are pressured to respond to the work-life challenges that today’s workforce is facing, it will become more and more important to understand what these individuals are looking for in terms of work-life balance. A major driver that has led to the increased interest in work-life balance is the changing face of the Workforce. There are a number of significant demographics changes taking place in the workforce today, changes that will also continue well into the future. Those organisations that understand how today’s workforce is changing will be better able to adapt. Furthermore, those organisations will become the leaders in attracting, hiring, and maintaining good employees. Although this is a relatively overlooked phenomenon in business arena, evidence will come from current research and case study example that demonstrate new ideas in practice and show the benefits of what is already being achieved. This ethnographic study will give a voice to employees who are struggling to balance their work and personal lives, but it is only a beginning. The meaning of work-life balance is elusive. In one sense, it describes â€Å"the relationship between the institutional and cultural times and spaces of work and non-workâ€Å". In another sense, it describes a state of equilibrium, in which the demands of both a person's job and personal life are equal. Although the focus is different, what these descriptions have in common is that they highlight the importance of the relationship between work and life. In particular, the first description focuses primarily on the relationship between work and non-work time and space, whereas the second focuses on the relationship between the demands associated with work and li fe. Of course, if we consider examples of such demands, we may also find ourselves back to the notion of time and space. What this raises is the importance of understanding how people describe the relationship they are seeking between work and life. In order for employers and policy makers to put strategies in place to promote a healthy work-life relationship there needs to be an understanding of what that means to employees. It may be that a continuum of work-life relationships exists throughout various stages of an individual's life and/or career. Furthermore, it might not matter what people call it, but rather how well they are able to articulate the relationship between work and life that works for them, and whether or not they are capable of managing that relationship. The type of balance sought by many individuals may not imply equal emphasis in both areas. Furthermore, it is important to recognise that individuals may

Parental Factors Essay Example for Free

Parental Factors Essay Parenting factors range from diet and nutrition, relationship with parental figures, tight schedules of working parents, early parenthood, kinship care, foster care, child abuse and neglect (Michigan Non Profit Association, 2002, p3-4). Diet and Nutrition has played a very important role most specially on the developing stage of a children’s life. The lack of proper nutrition has a significant effect on proper behavior. The deficiencies on iron, iodine, and other protein rich food could have a negative effect on the child’s development, and on the long run, on its behavior (Shonkoff, 2001) and Grantham-McGregor et al (2000) as cited from (Michigan Non Profit Association, 2002). Parents who also deal with their children based on fear poses a negative effect as well on their social development. More specifically, parents who are too stern, give punishments that are too unsympathetic and in some other cases establishes inconsistent rules of punishment has a bad effect on their children Hastings et al (2000) and UNICEF et al (1993) as cited from (Michigan Non Profit Association, 2002). In relation with this, parents who are too occupied with work tend to overlook the needs of their children. Another case would be with regard to teenage parents. More often than not, single mothers tend to be immature due to the lack of proper education and also the difficulty of earning a living. In some cases, children who ended up being raised on family relatives, foster care facilities and the likes also have a greater tendency of developing challenging behaviors (Michigan Non Profit Association, 2002).

Practice In Uk Mental Health Area Social Work Essay

Practice In Uk Mental Health Area Social Work Essay This study takes up the examination of social work practice in the area of mental health in the UK. It is based upon the experiences of the author in the course of her work as a Mental Health Professional in a multidisciplinary team in a community care setting. Mental health issues, more specifically mental illnesses, have troubled humans from the dawn of human civilisation. The history and literature of all historical societies reveal numerous instances of mental disorders among people and the inevitably associated ostracism and discrimination faced by such people. Mental illnesses in the UK, till even some decades back were associated with abnormal, deviant and dangerous behaviour and thousands of people with different types of mental issues were housed in high security asylums against their will for years on end. Such blatant violations of fundamental human rights were carried out at the behest of the medical fraternity with the active support of the government, the judiciary, the legal system, enforcement agencies and society. Social workers entered the area of mental health in the UK in the early decades of the 20th century and progressively increased their interaction and work with mentally ailing people. The involvement of social work practice in the area grew slowly until the 1960s but increased rapidly thereafter. Greater involvement of social work practice led to the development of psycho-social models for providing assistance to people with mental ailments and helped in changing societal perceptions towards such persons. The post Second World War period also witnessed a very substantial shift in governmental and medical approaches towards people with mental health disorders. The last full fledged asylum for housing the mentally ailing was closed down in . Medical disorders are now viewed to be strongly related to various social and economic conditions as also to phenomena like racism, oppression and discrimination. The overwhelming majority of people with mental health ailments are now treated in the community, in the midst of family and friends, and institutionalisation is resorted to only in extreme cases and that too for limited periods of time. Social work practice has become very relevant to the area of mental health. Qualified social workers like the author of the study, known as mental health professionals, work with medical professionals like doctors and psychiatrists and play active, even leading, roles in the assessment, planning, intervention and evaluation of people with mental health disorders. This study takes up the case of Maya, a 68 year old Asian woman, who lives in East London. Maya is a first generation immigrant and has spent much of her life in an alien society. She suffers from depression and has been referred to the local social work authorities. Mayas case is fully described in the appendix to this study and is thus not elaborated here. The essay examines various aspects of Mayas life and experiences in order to crystallise the various factors are contributing to her current mental difficulties. Special emphasis is given to the challenges faced by people suffering from depression and to the high incidence of depression among South Asian women. The study takes up the application of social work theory to practice, the role of oppression and discrimination in the development of mental ailments, the role of social workers in helping mentally ailing persons and the importance of adoption of anti-oppressive approaches in dealing with them. It also details the social services that are available to such service users and how such services can help Jaya. Causes and Consequences of Depression Maya has been intermittently suffering from depression for the last 27 years and has undergone medication and counselling on five occasions. She was specifically referred by her GP to the local social services department following an episode of some severity. Crippling depression is one of the biggest reasons for misery in modern day Britain. It is a submerged problem of immense dimensions that is kept out of sight by family shame. The Psychiatric Morbidity Survey reveals that one in six of UK residents are liable to be diagnosed with depression. It would surprise many people to know that 40% of all physical and mental disabilities are caused by mental illness, even as 17% of such ailments are caused by depression alone. The incidence of depression among people is more than 3 times that of cardiac disease. Psychologists agree that mental illness constitutes the most important predictor of human distress in the UK and is far more powerful than poverty or various other types of disability. With few forms of deprivation being worse than chronic depression, it is evident that social workers should give the highest priority to care for persons with depression and other mental health ailments. Much of research on the causes of depression has necessarily being medical in nature. A number of medical studies reveal that depression can arise out of a range of factors like medical and physical disabilities, the death of loved people, social isolation, exclusion and loneliness, and abusive relationships, separation and divorce. Depression can also be initiated by economic and other types of stress, estrangement from family members, the compulsion to care for ailing family members and relocation. Social work research on the other hand reveals that social phenomena like racism, discrimination and oppression can play significantly causal roles in the emergence of depression. Individuals from different religious, ethnic and cultural backgrounds have often been subjected to discrimination in the UK. The decades after the closure of the Second World War witnessed a large influx of people from erstwhile British colonies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean into the UK. Such immigrants, many of whom came to the UK to escape from lives of poverty, hardship and violence in their home countries, were often subjected to various degrees of oppressive and discriminatory treatment, both in the workplace and in the community. Such discriminatory treatment manifested itself in areas of employment, education and access to public facilities. Immigrants were treated differently and subjected to discrimination because of their lack of familiarity with the English language, their different physical appearances, religious traditions, cultural and social habits and their clothes. Such discrimination sometimes assumed distinctly undesirable dimensions like in the case of Christopher Clunis. A mentally disturbed person of African origin, Clunis murdered Jonathan Zito, a young white man, at a tube station in 1992.Whilst subsequent enquiries revealed that Clunis was mentally disturbed and he was subsequently institutionalised, the British media built up a picture of Clunis, (as a large, clumsy, unkempt and violent man), with strong overtones of racism. The numerous incidents of discrimination and ill treatment of persons of Asian origin in the USA after the September 11 attacks reveal racism and social discrimination to be a latent phenomenon that continues to work under the surface in societies and surfaces in response to different types of provocation and perceptions. Immigrants and their families even today have much poorer levels of education, income, health and public participation than members of the mainstream white majority in the UK. Maya is a first generation immigrant who was uprooted from her familiar North Indian environment when she was still in her teens and thrust into alien surroundings; she was unfamiliar with the local language and found it extremely difficult to communicate with others. Her social life was perforce restricted to the local Indian community in east London, which itself was very small when she came to England. Her husband and children, who had to adjust to the local community and its demands and expectations in order to survive and enhance their life chances, would have in all likelihood faced numerous incidences of discrimination and oppression over the course of their lives. Mayas domestic problems were also intensified because of her compulsion to stay with her husbands parents, a tradition that is still widely followed by the Asian community in the UK. Depression among Women from South Asian Communities in the UK A number of social work surveys and studies indicate that the incidence of depression is significantly high in South Asian women. Whilst such women originate from a large and ethnically diverse area that comprises of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Ceylon, many South Asian women suffer from similar causes for mental depression. Fenton and Carlsen, (2002) state that the main causes for depression amongst such populations are experiences of racism, family difficulties, financial problems, poor physical health and lack of employment. Women from these communities experience excessive mental pressure on account of community influence and reputation. Some of them have to cope with unsuitable marriages and unhappy relationships with their in-laws. Such circumstances create enormous difficulties and life challenges and moreover do not provide any avenues for escape. Some women have described how their families and the larger Indian community made them feel inadequate and repeatedly impressed upon them that they were failing in meeting their familial obligations. Such women also feel pressurised because of social isolation, lack of friends and acquaintances, inadequate education and stressful living conditions. The case study reveals that Maya has often been subjected to stress because of her difficult and strained relationship with her mother in law. It is also evident that the option of setting up home independently was never explored by her husband. It needs to be noted that whilst joint family living is common in South Asian communities, it is also often economically necessary because of straitened financial conditions and the additional costs that are likely to be incurred if children opt to live separately from their parents. Depression evidences itself in symptoms like change in eating and sleeping habits, lack of interest in normal daily activity, withdrawal from children, family and friends, overlooking of necessary activities at the home and outside and finally self destructive tendencies. Depressed people are prone to self harm and develop suicidal tendencies. Maya suffers from irregular sleeping habits, often sleeps late at night, gets up late in the mornings and is sometimes unable to cook for her family. She has reduced her interaction with outsiders and is becoming distant from her immediate family. She often suffers from headaches and cries for no reason. Such manifestations and symptoms constitute strong reasons for addressing depression in an elderly person like Maya. Not treating depression can place her and other older people at increased risk for additional physical and mental health problems. The disinclination to get out of the house and exercise can increase her hypertension, lead to diabetes and faster deterioration of the heart, lungs, bones and muscles. It can also lead to deeper, debilitating depression. Implications for Social Work Theory and Practice Social work theory and practice is fundamentally concerned with the improvement of the social and economic circumstances of disadvantaged individuals and groups and the challenging of oppression and discrimination in all its forms. Systems theory in particular, whilst abstract in nature and not applied systematically, has helped social workers to move from linear and causative medical models to significantly greater multi-causal contexts for the understanding of human behaviour. General systems theory provides a conceptual scheme for realising the interactions among different variables, rather than by reducing behavioural explanations to one reason. This is clearly evident in the area of mental health, where depression in people and their resultant behaviour is associated with a number of interacting social, biological and psychological factors. Systems theory requires social workers to examine the multiple systems in which people interact. Assessment of mentally ailing persons will for example require social workers to obtain information from different sources and place them in appropriate family and community contexts. Knowledge of social constructionism theory on the other hand enables social workers to realise how language has been used by medical experts and other dominant groups to build up images of the mentally disturbed as people who cannot look after themselves and their families and who need to be treated by medical experts. Modern societys perceptions about mental illnesses are significantly shaped by medical models, which state that medical ailments represent serious conditions that can make it hard for persons to sustain relationships and engage in employment. They can lead to self-destructive and even suicidal action (Walker, 2006, p 71-87). Social constructionism theory states that such perceptions are built by purposely developed vocabularies of medical models, which are bursting with complex nomenclatures for mental ailments and fixed on deficits. Walker, (2006, P 72), argues that vocabularies of medical models, including that of mental illness, are social constructs, comprising of terms that detail deficits and view humans as objects for examination, diagnosis and treatment, much like machines. Such perceptions result in treatments that is focused on removal of symptoms and do not take account of actual client needs (Walker, 2006, p 71-87). Social constructionism can assist social workers in realising the disparaging chimeras that have been built by existing medical models about the mentally ill. Social workers must also be informed by the theories of oppression and discrimination that condition and shape the behaviours of people, both the oppressors and the oppressed, towards poor, isolated and disadvantaged segments of society. Neil Thompsons PCS theory of oppression (2001), states that oppressive and discriminatory attitudes in people are socialised over the course of their life by three strong influences, namely personal perceptions and cultural and structural influences. Personal perceptions about the mentally ill can arise through reading about such people, viewing them on cinema, thinking about them and other such associated activities. Cultural influences comprise of numerous cognitive inputs from school, friends, family and the larger community about the mentally ill and unstable. Structural influences arise from the various embedded factors in the larger environment like their lack of fitness for employment and their need to be bodily restricted. These PCS factors s hape the minds of individuals and build up strong discriminatory attitudes that rest below the surface and are manifested in various ways. The media outrage over the Clunis incident and the construction of the person into a larger than life image of a socially dangerous person represents the way in which such discriminatory attitudes can often shape the behaviours and actions of people. Chew-Graham et al (2002), state that whilst the incidence of depression among South Asian women is significantly higher than the national average, such women faced numerous barriers in accessing social services because of internal and external barriers. Whilst internal barriers occurred because of family structures and community pressures, external barriers happen because of their unfamiliarity with English, difficulty in communicating with local social services departments and the disinclination of social workers to come to their aid. Services thus tended to be accessed only at points of desperation if at all and increase the tendency of such women to engage in self destructive activities. Dominelli (2002), states that discriminatory attitudes are deeply embedded in the existing social work infrastructure and can be eliminated only if there is a genuine and widespread feeling among social workers to do so. The labelling theory states that the self identity of individuals is often de termined by the terms that are used to describe them.

Jane Campions, The Piano :: essays research papers

In the spring of 1993, a film was released to the world that would end up changing the way many people perceived and appreciated films, especially those made internationally. It would be delivered from New Zealand’s most famous female filmmaker. Jane Campion, the director whom was previously known for her films, Peel-an Exercise in Discipline, and Sweetie, would achieve even higher acclaim for her masterpiece to date, The Piano.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Piano portrays the story of a mute, unwed Irish woman in late 1800s New Zealand, arranged into a marriage with a colonial New Zealand settler. The main character, Ada, expresses herself with the keys of her piano. She finds herself falling in love with Baines, one of the natives of her new home, after he persuades her to give him piano lessons in exchange for her beloved musical instrument. Ada is very emotionally distant with her new husband, and as he discovers the romance between her and his intense neighbor, he becomes competitively jealous. In a pit of rage, Ada’s husband severs one of her precious fingers and eventually gives up on the failed marriage. In the end of the film, Ada and her young daughter, Flora, set off from the island with Baines to start a new life, without her once loved piano.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The characters in this film hardly come shy of delivering performances that make for amazing cinema. The actors in The Piano include Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Anna Paquin, and Sam Neill. Holly Hunter’s character, Ada, delivered a fantastic performance on camera. Although many average moviegoers and few critics may discard Hunter’s role as achievement since she didn’t have to memorize any lines, the majority of film critics worldwide certainly disagreed, as Holly Hunter ended up taking home the Palme d’Or and an Academy Award for best actress soon after the films release. Hunter’s films previous to The Piano included films Raising Arizona, and a film by acclaimed Simpson’s producer, James L. Brooks, entitled Broadcast News (Davis 1.) Campion noted that as she was deciding whom to cast as her admirable Ada, that Hunter was not her imaginative image of the character at all: Holly was my image of Ada at all. But, in fact, I was very much saved from myself by Holly. Originally, I had an almost clichà ©d, romantic view of this tall, statuesque, black-haired, black-eyed beauty. In many ways, she wasn’t a very real human being, and when meeting Holly I was not very willing to see her as Ada.

Argumentative Essay: Gun Control Laws Only Impact Law-abiding Citizens :: essays research papers fc

Tom is running full speed, maybe even for his life. It is a perfect summer night in San Jose, and Tom and his work partner just left work minutes before. They were walking through a â€Å"bad neighborhood† when some thugs started hassling them, and yelling obscenities at them. Tom and his friend walked by them quickly soon to be chased by the thugs. The thugs were threatening Tom and his friend’s life. Tom and his friend continue to run till the reach a busy intersection where Tom pulls out a semi-automatic handgun from his backpack and points it towards the thugs. As soon as the gun is leveled the thugs retreat leaving the two men alone. If there had been no gun Tom and his friend would have been seriously beaten or even killed. Tom did not have a permit for the gun, and might have not been able to get one without a special reason (Rauch 731). People like Tom need to be able to get gun permits, but it is so difficult because of all the criminal activity in America. Gun control laws are pointless and are only binding on the law-abiding citizens. The â€Å"waiting period† method of gun control is basically a two-step process. The first step in the procedure is that the person wanting a gun goes to the gun shop to buy a gun. Then, he/she must wait one to two weeks while the government performs a small background check for past criminal activities, disorderly conduct, or lack of mental/emotional stability. During this time, if the purchaser of the gun wanted the gun for a â€Å"quick crime† it is hoped that they will not still want to cause bodily harm after a few weeks of waiting around. Another dumb law is that is in effect in California is that if you want to carry a concealed handgun, â€Å"you have to prove that you have some special reason to carry†(Rauch 731). The problem with this method of gun control is that it stops the ordinary citizen from purchasing a gun quickly. It still does not stop criminals from buying guns. They purchase them through "dummy buyers" that have clean backgrounds. So when the criminal enters the law abiding citizens house with deadly intentions, the innocent victim can’t defend his family cause he can’t get a gun cause he was arrested for drinking and driving 10 years ago before he was even married, so therefore him and his family become victims.

Economic Report

In economics, we need to use terms a little more carefully than they are sometimes used in ordinary discussions. In general use, â€Å"Demand† is a word that can have more than one meaning, but in microeconomics we define it more carefully so that it has only one meaning. Here is the definition: Definition: Demand Demand is the relationship between price and quantity demanded for a particular good and service in particular circumstances. For each price the demand relationship tells the quantity the buyers want to buy at that corresponding price. The quantity the buyers want to buy at a particular price is called the Quantity Demanded. The key point is to distinguish between demand (the relationship) and quantity demanded. That distinction is important for microeconomics, although people often do not make it in ordinary discussion. Demand and Need To keep it simple, we may think of the buyers as consumers. (Later we will look at markets for inputs to production, in which the buyers are producers of other goods and services). Clearly, the buyers are the people who want or need the product or service — but there is more to it than that. The word â€Å"demand† refers to the willingness and ability of people to purchase the good or service in the market. The demand relationship expresses that willingness and ability for the whole range of prices. To say that a person has a demand for a particular product is to say that the person has money with which to buy and is willing to exchange the money for the good. People will not demand what they do not want or need, but a want or a need unbacked by purchasing power is not a demand. Similarly, it is not enough that the suppliers possess the good or (the capacity to perform) the service. Supply also means willingness to sell. Most of us have experience living in the market economic system, and that makes economics seem like a common-sense field — but sometimes that common-sense feel can be deceptive. People sometimes use the term â€Å"demand† ambiguously — as if â€Å"demand† were the same thing as need. But it is not. Need without purchasing power will not create effective demand in the marketplace. Economists sometimes stress this point by using the term â€Å"effective demand† in place of simple â€Å"demand.† As we have seen, economists think of the demand for a good or service as a relationship between the price of the good or service and the quantity demanded of that good or service. Common sense says that the relationship is an inverse one; that is, that an increase in price will result in a decrease in the quantity demanded. In this, common sense is absolutely right. The higher the price, the less quantity demanded, and conversely, the lower the price, the more quantity demanded. Many economics textbooks use examples based on hypothetical (made-up) numbers. There is nothing wrong with that and we shall use some of them later on. But why not use a real example? Several years ago, the author estimated the demand relationship for beer. Here is an example based on that estimate. The prices quoted are wholesale prices, in cents of 1972 purchasing power. Quantity demanded is measured in millions of gallons, for the United States as a whole.