Collaborative working between primary and secondary care in community Essay

Collaborative working between primary and secondary care in community mental health - Essay Example The National Service Framework acknowledges the growing mental health needs of the adult population in the community and the alarming rise of mental health problems in the population. The commonest problems have been recognised to be anxiety and depression; however, psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia and manic depression are also not uncommon. Although there had been a service provision for these individuals for specialist mental health care units, unfortunately that did not serve well, and most these patients would be cared by the general practitioner or the primary care team, since most of these patients prefer care by the primary care team. If a specialist care team provides support to these patients while the care continued to be provided by the GPs and the primary team, it was contemplated, given the proportions of referrals to the specialist services, that an integrated care provision involving collaboration between care teams would best serve the purpose. However, it was soon evident that the problem of mental health care was not just specialist or primary treatment alone. It has social service implications since during the psychiatric or medical ca re, these patients needed support in terms of housing, employment, and training. There were problems with medication compliance, immediate crisis management facilities, continuous follow-up and earliest interventions, social support, and dual diagnosis. These problems would need the involvement of specialist community team including social care, but they cannot function effectively without the help from the primary care teams. While this paints the ideal picture, the reality must be different, since reviews still indicate that there are gaps in care provision in the mental health sector. Therefore, only evidence from literature can indicate the areas of the gaps, their reasons, and ways to avoid them so this framework can work most

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson Essay Example for Free

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson Essay The community has no real knowledge of this ceremony. It seems ridiculous that a community would cling to such a barbaric tradition, especially when they dont even know the correct way to do it. It becomes apparent this community is very weak-minded. Even the way they congregated at the lottery was done systematically in a sexist way. This community could be convinced to do anything. There are so many points in the story that show these people know nothing of the lotterys history. First of all, this tradition has been slowly peeled away for centuries. The actual modern ceremony was obviously more somber, with no one making light jokes and friendly conversation.. Years and years ago this part of the ritual had been allowed to lapse. This quote makes you wonder how many parts of the ritual were lost. There were probably so many intricacies, proper ways to face, words to recite. This form of brutalism is treated very informally, with Mr. Summers dressed in just a white shirt and jeans. These people dont realize the major sin they are committing, nor do they realize the purpose behind it. The people had done it so many times that they only half listened This has no real meaning to them, its like theyre just going through the motions The worst part is the purpose of the ritual was not said or explained once. No one asked why this must take place, no one questioned it. All the people know is that once a year they have a draw, and kill someone as a community. The low intelligence level in this village also explains why ridiculous ceremonies like this can be carried out. The women are dressed very old fashioned, all with their dresses and aprons, following their menfolk. It was preferred that the men drew for the lottery. This decision was carried out very formally and business-like, as if it was such an important detail. Why make it such a point to exclude women, but treat every other part of the ritual so informally? They even go as low as appointing Mr. Summers the man in charge, the same man who devotes himself to all the youth related civic activities. The ritual appears to be a community activity, as if it was  written on everyones social calendar. The lack of formality is very disconcerting to the reader. The tardiness of Mr. Summers, the pleasant conversation, and so many more examples of disrespect and eagerness make it very obvious. They only follow parts of the ritual deemed necessary. get this over with, sos we can go back to work No one seems to realize this is a murder they are committing, it is inhumane. This ritual, passed down through generations, is no more important than a days work. As the draw is carried out, the people only hope it isnt the innocent children that are chosen. The kids cheered with relief when their slips of paper turned up blank. There was no sorrow for their mother, who had undoubtedly won the lottery, just relief their lives were spared. This would appear to any normal human as a useless tradition. It has no further meaning other than allowing a mortal sin to take place. If the whole community follows that makes it okay. Everything is changing but the cold-blooded murder. There are no formalities. No one appears to be taking it seriously, besides the one whose name was drawn. There is absolutely no mention of the purpose behind this ritual in the entire story. The people have no respect for the ritual itself, they just want to hurry up and find out who won, and get to the stoning.

Wireless Communication Impact on Business

Wireless Communication Impact on Business Technology means invention of techniques and tools. Emerging technology will change the world drastically. As the world continues to move, so does the improvement of technology. Every year discard light on improvements to yesterdays devices and new innovations appearing on the scope. Many scientific events have become possible through technologies which assist humans to do many things we could not do otherwise. Day to day new technologies is emerging very rapidly. New technologies those are currently developing or will be developed over the next few years, and which will substantially alter the business and social environment. These include information technology, wireless data communication, bio-technologies, bio-informatics, man-machine communications, and advanced robotics. Emerging technologies are constantly being developed in order to meet the needs of companies and people. Some of emerging technologies for this year are Bio-electronics and wetware, energy harvesting, printed e lectronics, biofeedback and thought control of electronics, plastic memory, resistive RAM, various battery technologies, single cell analysis, and neutron control. Technology runs in the layers of society. It is one of the fuels that drive our lives. We would discuss two of emerging technologies and its impact on business and society briefly. Introduction An Emerging Technology is a common term used to represent major technological developments, introducing new revolutions in the earlier technologies. Emerging Technologies are the technical innovations which signify progressive developments within a field for competitive advantage. Examples of present emerging technologies are Wireless Communication, Nano technology, Biotechnology, Artificial Intelligence Wireless Energy Transfer, robotics and etc. Emerging Technologies has severe impact on business and society. However, the level of impact on business and society may vary from technology to technology. The way we do our business and live our lives would be much different if the technologies are not continuously changing. Because of Emerging technologies, business has been able to progress in such a way that we can communicate across the globe without leaving their respective offices. Example Web conferencing, Teleconferencing. The entertainment media has progressed because of advancement in technology only. The latest technological advances are not only limited to business but also has severe impact on society. Emerging technology has affected the way we live in many ways. Example: Medical technology, Global Positioning System (GPS) etc. Because of these technologies, we live our lives very comfortably. Technology has brought luxury in the life of the common man. It has saved human effort and time to a large extent. It has brought distant place closer and simplified information access. Emerging technologies has both pros and cons. Emerging Technology I Wireless Communication: Wireless Communication means transfer of information from one place (location) to another place (location) without using wires or electrical conductors. The distance between the locations may be short or long. When the information transferring between two locations without using wires is clear then the term is referred as wireless. In general Wireless communication is considered as a branch of telecommunications. The marginalized technology for wireless communication is wired communication. Wireless System has more propagation and transmission effects compared to wired system. In the olden days of wireless telegraphy, Marconi proved that wireless signals can be cross over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Now a days we are not using radio technology to cover large distances. Because of developments in digital electronics and signal processing, so many methods are there to overcome the differences of the mobile channel and thereby accelerating the growth of wireless communication. In addition advanced digital modulation techniques such as spread spectrum or multi carrier modulation (MCM) is suitable for wireless communication. Many new developments in wireless office networks (Hyper LAN or IEEE 802.11) involve spread spectrum transmission, and allow coexistence with other services, Bluetooth and many proprietary solutions use deregulated (ISM) radio bands. Spread spectrum transmission methods i nclude slow and fast frequency hopping, direct sequence CDMA and multi carrier CDMA. Spread spectrum signals are relatively vigorous to multipath dispersion. These methods permit multiple users to share the same radio channel. In future Wireless communication networks or multimedia networks, the multiple access issue becomes significantly more essential than it is for circuit switched voice communication. The ALOHA, CSMA and ISMA all allow multiple users to share the same radio communication resources. How these protocols perform substantially for guided (wired) and an unguided (radio) channels? Performance of these protocols highly depends on the physical propagation characteristics of the channel. (Jean-Paul M.G. Linnartz, 1996-2004) Examples of wireless communication are Cellular telephones and pagers, Cordless computer peripherals, Global Positioning System (GPS), Satellite television, Wireless gaming, Wireless networking and Consumer two way radio including General Mobile Radio Service and Citizens band radios. Cellular communication has modernized the communication industry. In wireless communication Radio Frequency (RF) waves, Electromagnetic (EM) waves, Infrared rays (IR) and microwaves can carry over a part or the entire communication path. Wireless communication can be via: Radio frequency communication. Microwave communication, for example line of sight propagation via highly directional antennas. Infrared (IR) short range communication, for example from remote controls or via Infrared Data Association (IDA). (Wireless Communication, Accessed on April 5th, 2010) Categories: Radio Communication system Amateur radio Land Mobile Radio or Professional Mobile Radio: TETRA, P25, Open Sky, EDACS, DMR. Cordless telephony: DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) Cellular Networks: 0G, 1G, 2G, 3G Beyond 3G (4G), Future wireless Short range point to point communication: Wireless microphones, Remote controls, AIRD, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), Wireless USB, DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communications), near field communication. Wireless Networks: Wireless LAN (WLAN), IEEE branded as Wi-Fi and Hiper LAN, Wireless Metropolitan Area networks (WMAN) and Broad band fixed Access (BWA) (LMDS, WiMAX, AIDAAS and HiperMAN). Wireless sensor networks: Bluetooth, TransferJet, ZigBee, EnOcean, Personal area networks, Ultra-wideband (UWB from WiMedia Alliance). Advantages: To make available of a backup communication link in case of a regular network failure. To cover a distance away from the capabilities of distinctive cabling. To connect portable or transitory workstations. To surmount situations where standard cabling is not easy or economically unfeasible. To remotely connect mobile users or networks. Disadvantages: Fading Inter and Intra cell interference Capturing effects In wireless networks the above disadvantages are present and considerably influence the performance, such as throughput, stability and delay for a wireless ALOHA-net. Also, the performance seen by each participating terminal differs from the average performance of the network and extremely depends on the terminals location. (Jean-Paul M.G. Linnartz, 1996-2004) Two common assumptions for wire line networks must be refined for the realistic analysis of the performance of wireless networks: If there is no collision occurs simultaneously on the same channel then the data packet is received successfully. Data packets will be lost if they are involved in a collision. Some specific solutions are existing effectively to resolve collisions; they include the tree algorithm, the stack algorithm and dynamic frame length ALOHA. The combined use of CDMA and random access directs to new system concepts. (Jean-Paul M.G. Linnartz, 1996-2004) Applications: The main application of wireless communication is omnipresent network connectivity. Point-to-Point communication, Point-to-multi point communication, Broadcasting, Cellular networks, Security systems, Television remote control, Cellular telephone (phones and modems) Computer interface devices and Other wireless networks. Impact of Wireless communication on business: Wireless communication technology can have a significant impact on business. Wireless communication is also known as Wi-Fi (Wireless fidelity) or WLAN (wireless local area network), uses low-power radio waves to transmit data over distances from one device to another without the use of wires, allowing senders and recipients to access information while on the move. Especially for business, Wi-Fi is invaluable as it allows the boss, who travels frequently, to stay in touch with his employees back at the office. Because of Wireless communication more individuals started work from home. The rapid development of wireless communication is primarily through cell phones and wireless internet. The wireless communication revolution is bringing fundamental changes to data networking, telecommunications, and is making integrated networks a reality. By freeing the user from the cord, personal communication networks, wireless LANs, mobile radio networks and cellular systems, harbour the promise of fully distributed mobile computing and communications, anytime, anywhere. E-mail and company web sites are advantageous communication technology for businesses. Businesses that use these electronic communication tools are able to expand their market place. Because of raising growth of wireless technologies, allow access to the networks for the workplace community. So that customers, clients and employees want network and service from different places of the company. There has been considerable interest lately for all businesses to set up mobile computing workplaces for their employees and also mobile computing for other functions of the business from distributors, suppliers and service providers. Recently industries have made significant progress in wireless technology to determine some constraints. Because of this wireless technologies become popular. Some of these constraints have included different standards, low bandwidth, and high infrastructure and service cost. Wireless technologies can both support the organizational company mission and offer cost effective solutions. Because of Wireless technologies so many new applications are there such as to connect computers, to permit remote monitoring and data acquisition, to provide con trol and security, and to provide a solution for environments where wires may not be the best implementation. (My Wireless Business Accessed on 19 Mar 2010) Overusing technology in business communication can lead to an overload in overusing communication. Messages began to lose importance with communication overload. Personal use of communication technology in the workplace lost time for businesses. Creating rules for use of communication technology reduces the amount of lost time a business suffers from this problem. Impact of Wireless Communication on Society: The development of wireless technology and wireless devices accessing of information can be possible approximately anywhere and people can be in touch with one another in various places. Wireless technology has both advantages and disadvantages. Wireless Technology is responsible for creating self doubt, disrupting relationships and as a tool for manipulation. However, the market for wireless devices, whether there is everywhere mobile phone, PDAs or wireless enabled computers and appliances, continues to grow and develop with new technologies emerging every day. The rapid development of wireless communication is primarily through cell phones and wireless internet over the past 15 years. Because of mobile phone so many changes in society. It has changed the way of communication between the people. In a home atmosphere, wireless technology simplifies various tasks which can eventually lead to less stress. A wireless network can do many things or plenty of work in a cool environment. Most inventions in history affect society for decades following its introduction in to the consumer market. Sometimes the consequences and side effects of a product do not become apparent until much later when there is more time for the social impact to catch up with the widespread use of the product. This is no exception with wireless communications because the social impacts have not been fully discovered. (Markoff, 2004) Emerging Technology II Artificial Intelligence (AI): Artificial intelligence is the study of how to make computers behave intelligently. Artificial Intelligence is the present generation computer technology. In simple Artificial Intelligence means those computer program and software which would think of its own as an average Human being does. It is related to the similar task of using computers to know human intelligence, but AI does not have to confine itself to methods that are biologically visible. In other way artificial intelligence is the branch of computer science and the intelligence of machines that aims to create it. Text books define artificial intelligence as the study and designing of intelligent agents, where an intelligent agent is considered as a system that perceives its environment and takes actions to maximize its ability of success. John McCarthy, who invented the term artificial intelligence, defines it as the science and e3ngineering of making intelligent machines. The marginalized technology for artificial intelligence is human decision and human analysis. Computer programs have plenty of speed and memory but their capabilities correspond to the intellectual mechanisms that program designers understand well enough to put in programs. One of AIs first projects was the development of mathematical language much like a computer language, in which researchers could encode assertions. If the language was rigorous enough, computer algorithms could be able to comb through assertions written in it and calculate all the logically valid inferences. Once they had developed such languages, AI researchers started using them to encode lot of commonsense assertions, which they sorted in huge databases. Moores law states that for every 18 months the number transistors on the chip will be doubled, processing power doubles while cost hold constant. In fact, when computers were first built, people proposed them for doing nothing but mindless computations, but as the development of newer technologies, computers eventually were limited to arithmetic anymore, they are now called Artificial intelligence. The computer technology has changed the face of the world. Computers can store, organize and handle enormous amounts of data. They can process huge amounts of information. Computers have given increase to the software industry, one of the most progressive industries of the world. (An Introduction to AI, Accessed on Mar 25, 2010) Types of AI: Strong AI and Weak AI Strong AI: A computer running suitable software actually is intelligent. Weak AI: Intelligence is something that only biological systems can posses. The best that can be accomplished with a machine is to stimulate intelligence. Advantages: Unemotional consideration of problems means human mind may have emotions. When people take decisions, sometimes those decisions are based on emotion rather than logic, so it may be wrong decision. That thing could not be happen with AI. Disadvantages: AI replaces human, means people believe that machine work accurately than human. So human become more dependent on AI and trust the results and decisions made by AI. This implies that more jobs are done by AI machines and the fewer are offered to human. Because of unemployment rate, it is likely that more people will be losing their jobs competing with machines. Due to this an economic destruction will occur and because of this an increase in crime rate and starvation. Economic destruction is not only because of using AI but also Technology that could be harmful to minds of small children. Applications: Pattern recognition Optical character recognition Face recognition Speech recognition Computer Vision, virtual reality and image processing Game theory and strategic planning Game artificial intelligence and Computer game boot Hybrid intelligent system Diagnosis (artificial intelligence) Natural language processing, Translation and Chatter Bots Artificial creativity Heuristic clarification Robotics Behaviour based robotics Cybernetics Evolutionary robotics Epigenetic robotics Cognitive robotics The impact of Artificial Intelligence on business: Evolution of artificial intelligence and information technology has effect the business in order to improve their performance. Due to information technologies information gathering, communication between the people will be fast. So the results were very accurate. AI is essential for economy and now is one of the main sources of business and employment. It also gives an additional form of communication and exchange of information which was not accessible before. Technology is relevant in politics as governments are trying to adopt IT for making improvements in the storage of data, and finally it is essential for economy as now it is one of the main sources of business and employment. On the information superhighway, the internet, the world is a very small place and distance, nationality, income are irrelevances, but the existence of such a network with high speed, worldwide communications together with satellites, has meant that news, ideas and other information can be spread, world-wide in the blink of an eye and with this now possible, some of the traditional constraints have been loosened. The development of the internet means can now work from their homes. The so called information superhighway makes a variety of different services and types of information available at the touch of a button, to the point where its next to impossible to avoid exposure to one kind or another. It happens very often that the information you get on the Internet, especially with search engines is too much. In the web you may easily get lost when you are looking for something as you are usually beleaguered by an amount of information that is misdirected and irrelevant for you. With the internet you cannot have the same experience as for instance with a book, where the material is selected and organized with some coherence. There is no way to distinguish the brilliant from the trash, you can never be sure that what you are reading is true. (Harvard Business School Publishing May 2005) The impact of Artificial Intelligence on Society: Artificial Intelligence has been developed for many years and is already widely used in human society. Ex. Hospitals use Artificial intelligence machines to diagnose patients. The invention of the computer and its associated technologies has a major impact on many areas of our everyday lives. Technology affects everyone in the modern society in the aspects of work and leisure activities. Technology is one of the major energetic force of the future, is altering our lives and shaping our future at rates unprecedented in history. Due to different technologies we are satisfied with our lives. Technology is essential for our society, its elaboration, and production at the centre of the cultural, political and economic fields, which are the basis of the society. Human beings solve most of their troubles by means of fast, instinctive judgements rather than the aware, step-by-step subtraction that early AI study was able to model. Artificial Intelligence has made some progress at replicated this type of sub figurative problem solving; personified agent approaches stress the importance of sensor motor skills to advanced reasoning neural net research attempts to rep licate the structure of inside human and animals brain that give rise to this talent. (Harvard Business School Publishing May 2005) Conclusion: As we discuss two types of emerging technologies (wireless communication and artificial intelligence) and their impact on business and society. Because of emerging technologies, we are doing many which would otherwise not possible.

Une Petite Mort: Death, Love and Liminality in the Fiction of Ali Smith :: Ali Smith Death Love Essays

Death, Love and Liminality in the Fiction of Ali Smith The morbid marriage of love and death is not an original topic to postmodernist writing or to Scottish literature. Diverse forms of literature from Greek myth to Shakespearian tragedies have hosted stories of tragic love and romantic deaths, with varying nuances of darkness and romance. Nonetheless, this paper will attempt to establish a link between Ali Smith’s writing, postmodernist fiction and Scottish fantasy, while looking at the topic of love and death in conjunction with the concept of liminality. Liminality (from the Latin limen: limit) is an intermediate state, it refers to passage rituals and to existence between borders. Stories of love and death often suggest the abrupt interruption of the former because of the sudden occurrence of the latter. Sometimes, however, love and death share the same intermediate dimension between life and afterlife: the liminal stage. As this paper will stress, Smith’s writing deals with love and death in the context of liminality. Characters’ identities fluctuate and sometimes crumble altogether. Rational boundaries of time and space lose coherence. Stories develop in the uncanny limbo left after a death or some other form of disappearance. It is in this liminal dimension that love and death are sinisterly married in Smith’s work. When asked to comment on the love and death motif in her stories, Smith admitted that the two are closely related. In her words: Of course love and death are linked, from the French notion of orgasmic small death through the metaphysical poets all the way to something Winterson sums up in the perfect opening sentence, in Written on the Body: ‘why is the measure of love loss?’ (Germanà  , p.370) In Smith’s fiction, ‘petite mort’ is a more complex motif than the French metaphor for sexual climax. In her stories the trope of love and death does not refer only to the erotic sphere of love. In fact, because of its close relationship to liminality, the traditional topic acquires a more metaphysical twist throughout Smith’s fiction. The coexistence of love and death questions the boundaries between life and death, overcomes the threshold of the physical world to reach beyond this limit, and explores all the possibilities in between. In fact, death often seems to be a paradoxical vehicle through which life and love are manifested and asserted. The notion that death may overcome the borders between life and afterlife suggests a deeper analysis of the concept of liminality.

British Empire Essay -- British English History

THE BRITISH EMPIRE The British Empire was the largest empire in history and for a time was the foremost global power. It was a product of the European age of discovery, which began with the maritime explorations of the 15th century, that sparked the era of the European colonial empires. By 1921, the British Empire held sway over a population of about 458 million people, approximately one-quarter of the world's population. It covered about 36.6 million km ² (14.2 million square miles), about a quarter of Earth's total land area. As a result, its legacy is widespread, in legal and governmental systems, economic practice, militarily, educational systems, sports, and in the global spread of the English language. At the peak of its power, it was often said that "the sun never sets on the British Empire" because its span across the globe ensured that the sun was always shining on at least one of its numerous colonies or subject nations. During the five decades following World War II, most of the territories of the Empire became independent. Many went on to join the Commonwealth of Nations, a free association of independent states. This astonishing empire was never undone in the way that the Roman Empire was: instead it dissolved peacefully, by mutual consent, and the British, apart from creating the world's largest empire, also had the privilege of being the only empire builders not to be destroyed in their far flung empire itself. ORIGINS UNDER ELIZABETH I The first moves by the British to establish an empire came during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603). Elizabeth was a far-sighted sovereign who financially supported the voyages of exploration, mainly through her favorite, Sir Francis Drake, who in 1580, became the first... ...FORMER OTTOMAN TERRITORY IN MIDDLE EAST The outcome of the First World War in 1919, saw the British Empire at its height: the Treaty of Versailles gave Britain most of the German Empire in Africa, while the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East led to the British acquisition of Palestine and Iraq in 1918. DISSOLUTION OF THE EMPIRE AFTER WORLD WAR II The British Empire only finally started dissolving after the First World War, with the process being speeded up dramatically in the aftermath of the Second World War. The primary reason for the dissolution of the empire was economic and political rather than racial: after the Second World War, Britain was simply too impoverished to continue holding on to an empire created in a previous century, and it was easier to grant independence to the far flung colonies, especially when some of these turned violent.

The Old Family Bank

The Old Family Bank I. Problems A. Macro 1. The lack of loyalty to the entire bank could affect the effectiveness (and profitability) of the bank. 2. The bank may have a poor process for setting pay policies. B. Micro 1. Though the personnel in the computer services department have a strong team, they are not loyal to the larger organization. 2. Computer services personnel believe that management does not appreciate them, their skills, and contributions. 3. Computer services personnel may be underpaid when compared to similar workers in other companies. II. Causes 1.The skilled workers in the computer services department do not recognize all of the factors that may affect pay and rewards. 2. The computer services personnel possibly have access to more company-wide information by virtue of the type of work their department does than do personnel in other departments. Consequently, they get a portion of the data without understanding how managers make decisions based upon that data. II I. Systems affected The attitudes of the computer services personnel to the bank likely affect the entire bank’s operations. IV. Alternatives 1. H. Day gathers more data to confirm/disprove initial diagnosis. . Use a diagnosis model such as force-field analysis to understand better the problem. Working through the model may bring to light ways to change the situation in the computer services department. 3. Day checks on regional employment data to determine if computer services personnel are being paid competitively with similar workers in other companies. Adjust pay if warranted by the data. 4. Meet with the department and explain the bank’s procedures and rationale for how pay levels are set. V. Recommendations All of the alternatives listed above can be undertaken by Day.

Discrimination and Retaliation

Betty Dukes was a cashier who used to work at Wal-Mart. For nine years Ms. Dukes worked hard and aspired to move up the ranks in the company. She thought that if she became loyal and dedicated to her job she will one day move to a higher position in the company. The time came that she felt that she was ready for the next challenge. She came up to her immediate supervisor and asked to be trained for the higher job (Daniels, 2004). Unfortunately she was denied being given the training needed to move up the order.This incident triggered what now is the biggest class action sex discrimination lawsuit in the United States. Widely known as the Dukes vs. Wal-Mart Inc, this lawsuit charges Wal-Mart of committing sex-discriminatory practice against their employees especially women. Upheld in June 2004 to be a class action lawsuit, this case covers over 1. 5 million current and former employees at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart appealed the district court’s decision but on February 2007, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the court’s class certification.The U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or EEOC helped in this case. The commission is the federal arm of the government with the sole agenda of ensuring that equal employment opportunity is given to every individual. The EEOC has the power of prosecuting work related discriminatory cases against companies or employers who have been accused of doing such a thing. They enforce the laws that protect employees from discriminatory practices. Dukes vs. Wal-Mart Inc. is basically a sex-discrimination case.This lawsuit accuses Wal-Mart of choosing which employee will be given the chance to move up the corporate ladder. Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it is prohibited to give employment discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, or national origin (U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2004). Any person who has the ability and capability of advancing in the company should be treated fairly. This sense of fairness is what Ms. Dukes did not felt while working at Wal-Mart. Another act which Wal-Mart violated is the Equal Pay Act of 1963.Under this law, women and even men are protected from sex-based wage discrimination. Men and women who basically do the same job should also have the exact same amount of wage. Wal-Mart is being criticized for violation this act. The company clearly showed its bias towards its male employees by giving them higher wage against their female counterparts. Ask Ms. Stephanie Odle about this since she experienced this discrimination first hand. Ms. Odle accidentally found a W-2 form lying around the office which belongs to her male officemate, an assistant manager just like her.They have basically the same job but the wage of the male assistant manager was significantly higher than her wage (Daniels, 2004). There are many other discriminatory practices that Wal-Mart exercises, but based on the two above examples, EEOC has every right to prosecut e Wal-Mart. On my opinion a fair settlement on a case like this is give the victims what they are really due. Wal-Mart must pay each individual who have been victim of its bias towards its male and white workers. No ifs or buts for Wal-Mart because the money really belongs to their underpaid workers.Since we are talking about multi billions of dollars, it is also fair to give Wal-Mart a feasible amount of time to pay. I think it is fine to let Wal-Mart pay in installments. Another option for Wal-Mart is to give their victims a few thousands of dollars worth of gift certificates every month which can be used at Wal-Mart and all of its other subsidiaries. Lastly I think Wal-Mart also owes all its victims an apology for all the wrongdoings and hurt that they have caused. Discrimination should not be happening in the first place but since we are not living in a perfect world, discrimination will always be there.In an organization, the best way to battle discrimination is prevention. If an organization prevents it from happening then class action lawsuits like the one discussed above may never happen again. Organizations can fight discrimination by having a stronger policy against it. Companies should setup its own committee which will look for the welfare of their employees. This committee will also be responsible for hiring and promoting employees instead of giving this task to a single person which is the complete opposite at the scenario at Wal-Mart.At Wal-Mart, managers have the sole power of hiring and promoting. With this privilege, a manager can be bias consciously or unconsciously on making decisions based on his or her preferences (Parloff, 2007). It’s hard to fight discrimination but it is not an unbeatable foe. Every person must just have an open mind, a mind that will look beyond color, race, sex or religion. Discrimination has no place in the school, community, work place or wherever. Discrimination should just cease to exist and let no one fel l prey to it ever again.