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?

1. Justify the fundamental reasons that marketers should closely monitor the actions of rivals in order to proactively address developing issues, events, and circumstances. Provide one (1) example of such successful close monitoring to support your rationale.
2. Evaluate the value afforded by Lehmann and Winer’s Level of Competition Model as an instrument for engendering the accurate identification and understanding of competition within the health care industry. Provide at least two (2) specific examples of Lehmann and Winer’s Level of Competition Model that apply within a health care organization with which you are familiar.
3. Based on your review of the Learnscape scenario titled “Learnscape 2: Patient Engagement”, analyze the benefits afforded to health care marketers that understand the importance of establishing core values that guide health care organizations in their strategic and tactical pursuits. Determine whether you believe the relationship between core values should stay the same over time or should change over time. 4. Provide one (1) example of such a relationship between core values to support your rationale.

Appraise the value offered by Leonard Berry’s Success Sustainability Model as a management tool for communication drivers of excellence that will yield sustained success. Provide at least two (2) specific examples of

1. Identify a business decision situation that requires action in your organization. Be clear and succinct.

2. Assess the current situation.

3. Identify two symptoms.

4. Identify likely problems causing each symptom.

5. Write a decision statement (this is always a question).

6. Identify research objective (potential result) that corresponds to the decision statement.

7. Restate research objective in the form of a question (known as the research question).

8. Develop a hypothesis by (1) reviewing the research objectives and identifying the variables and (2) specifying the variables in a declarative statement and describing the direction of the relationship.

Write a two-page paper based on the information from your responses.

The paper should include the following headings:

Current Situation, Problem Statement, Research Objective, Research Question(s), and Hypothesis.

Be sure to include a title page and a reference page.

Use correct APA formatting when writing your paper.

What Motivates You?

What are five motivators that make you do better work?

Bad Behavior

What behaviors do you believe would be severe enough violations to warrant terminating an officer?

Stressed is Desserts Spelled Backwards

In a discussion forum posting, answer the following questions:

1. What are major stressors in your life right now?
2. How could you reduce your level of personal stress?

W4 Discussion

Below are two separate discussion questions, choose ONE and discuss.

Conventional Chemical Pesticides

Pesticides are those substances applied to destroy, repel, or control populations of undesirable organisms.  Conventional chemical pesticides are pesticides are synthetic materials that are commonly used to kill or inactivate a particular undesirable organism.  These chemicals have both advantages and disadvantages, which are outlined below.  Which single advantage and which single disadvantage do you think are the most important? Why?

Advantages of Conventional Chemical Pesticides

1. Saves lives
2. Contains diseases geographically
3. Improved crop/livestock yields
4. Nutrition and health improved
5. May be safe if utilized properly

Disadvantages of Conventional Chemical Pesticides

1. Negative health effects to humans and wildlife
2. Reduces biodiversity in ecosystems
3. Pollutes the environment by unintentionally entering air, water, and soil resources
4. Pests can develop resistance to pesticides, necessitating a new pesticide.
5. May be expensive for farmers

W5 Discussion Forum

Below are two separate discussion questions, choose ONE and discuss.

Nonrenewable vs. Renewable Resources

Review the website http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/ and your PowerPoint lectures 9 and 10 to get an understanding of the differences between nonrenewable and renewable energy resources. Cite at least one advantage and one disadvantage of using each.  Then, reflect on the environmental impacts associated with nonrenewable energy resource use and select the renewable energy resource you feel would best reduce our dependence on nonrenewable energy resources. Defend your selection.

Energy Resource Challenges

The Deep Water Horizon oil spill was the largest marine oil spill in US history. It caused extensive damage to marine and wildlife habitats and to the fishing and tourism industries situated around the Gulf of Mexico.  It is likely that scientists will continue to uncover effects from the oil spill for years to come.  Review the websitehttp://www.eoearth.org/article/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill?topic=50364 to read more about the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill.  The Deep Water Horizon is located in a unique, yet critical environmental habitat which supports a variety of marine organisms.  Do you think that drilling in this area should continue?  Why or why not? When defending your response, cite examples and describe the advantages or disadvantages of drilling in the Deep Water Horizon.

·         Aristotle’s Conception of Virtue

Aristotle argues that the most important form of happiness consists neither in momentary episodes of pleasure nor in long series of such moments,but rather in the happiness one can take in old age in reflecting back on a life well-lived.

Please answer the following question:

• • What, according to Aristotle, constitutes a life well-lived, and how does his conception of this relate to his conception of virtue and his ideal of virtuous action that avoids both “excess” and “deficiency” but rather that realizes “a mean”?
  • As you do this, please remember to quote and analyze “crucial passages,” to ask specific questions about concepts or argumentative moves that strike you as important but that you do not fully understand.
  • 75- 150 words or more.

In a recent news article located at http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/heres-where-your-federal-income-tax-dollars-go-f654971, NBC News reported that the U.S. Government spends $3.6 trillion per year to fund Social Security, Medicare, homeland defense and safety, education, transportation, and the interest on debt obligations. In spite of the services and benefits that the government provides, many taxpayers dread paying income taxes but consider them a necessary evil. Consequently, there is much debate about the inequities contained within the tax code, due to tax shelters and tax credits provided to some taxpayers which thereby increase the tax burden on others.

Using the Internet or Strayer Library, research at least two (2) countries that have a zero income tax rate.

Write a four to five (4-5) page paper in which you:

1. Analyze the way in which the two (2) countries that you have researched provide services and benefits to its citizens without collecting personal income taxes.
2. For the countries that you have chosen, determine whether or not the U.S. could adopt their taxation model without reducing its total amount of revenue generated by collecting personal income taxes from individuals and business. Justify your response.
3. Suggest at least three (3) advantages and three (3) disadvantages of the U.S. adopting a zero income tax model. Provide a rationale for your response.
4. Create a proposal for where the revenue would be derived if the U.S. were to adopt a zero income tax model. In your response, provide specific recommendations concerning the following:
   1. The proposed tax base.
   2. Whether or not tax payers at certain income levels should be exempt from taxation.
   3. The primary way in which the IRS would calculate the tax rate in order to ensure that the same level of tax revenue would still be collected.
   4. The primary way in which your plan will achieve equity.
5. Speculate on the primary way in which the federal government could make up any shortfalls if it does not collect its targeted revenue from personal income taxes, and ascertain the most significant way in which the U.S. Department of the Treasury, through the IRS, can still adhere to its fiscal and monetary policies. Justify your response.
6. Use at least four (4) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality 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:

• Examine the types of taxes imposed at the federal, state, and local levels; the federal tax formula; and the rules for arriving at personal and dependency exemptions.
• Analyze the concepts of gross income and distinguish between the economic, accounting, and tax concepts of gross income and strategies to minimize gross income, maximize deductions, and minimize disallowance of deductions
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in federal taxation.
• Write clearly and concisely about federal taxation using proper writing mechanics.

After reviewing the Pearson Learning materials in the background page of this module, respond to the following:

Viktor Frankl (1905–1995) once said: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Dr. Viktor Frankl was a Jewish Austrian neurologist and psychologist who survived the concentration camps during World War II. Frankl had his opinion on human freedom. Respond to the following questions:

Explain whether you agree with Frankl’s opinion that it is important for a person to have the freedom to choose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances and to choose one’s own way.

Describe a personal example in a business setting that supports your explanation.  For instance, you might want to discuss how people deal with edicts from on high in a given organization vs. situations where employees have a voice in the decision making process.

To what extent you believe that freedom or the right to choose is important from an ethical perspective and how does this choice impact business success?

The security consulting firm that you work for has been awarded a contract to implement a new IT Security Infrastructure to secure the Information Technology data assets of a local government agency.  This agency has many remote workers that are in the field and need to connect back to the agency’s system servers. The remote workers use a wireless network infrastructure to connect their electronic pads to servers located within the local government’s facility. The remote workers have needs to access property records, cite zoning violations electronically, and validate building permits. The public demand to expand IT services has grown faster than its ability to provide an adequately secured infrastructure. In fact, this government entity was previously featured on the news for having minimal security controls and methods for accessing property tax information of citizens. The inadequate security allowed many construction trade businesses to illegally access property records and zoning violations. Your role in this project is to enhance and optimize the security mechanisms for accessing these systems.

Write a four to five (4-5) page paper in which you:

1. Create an information flow diagram, using Visio or Dia, which:

a. Illustrates how remote users will securely connect to the government agency’s network.

b. Illustrates the patch of network devices that data packets must travel to get from server to remote user’s device and back to