Depression and Suicidal Ideation: Mental Health Case Study

Depression and Suicidal Ideation: Mental Health Case Study Introduction Mental health nursing is a complex healthcare practice, because it aims to meet the needs of clients with mental health needs, which are usually also complex and require more than a single therapeutic approach. Mental health nurses usually provide supportive and therapeutic care adhering to nursing and healthcare principles of beneficence and non-maleficence, and adhere to the principles published in the national guidance, of client-centred care focused on service user need, as enshrined in the National Service Framework for Mental Health (Department of Health, 1999). Mental health nursing usually involves the provision of ongoing, supportive therapeutic interventions and ‘talking’ therapies, which can include counselling based on established principles. This role of the mental health nurse involves the formation of a therapeutic relationship with the client, in order to support the client to development self-management and coping strategies for the ongoing control of th eir condition and its symptoms, in conjunction with pharmacological treatments. This critical essay will explore the mental health nursing care of a particular, identified patient encountered in clinical practice, in whose care the author was directly involved. It explores the provision of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to a single client who had complex health needs and challenging symptoms, reviewing the usefulness and appropriateness of the therapy, the effects or projected effects on the client’s wellbeing and symptoms, and the issues surrounding such care for the client in relation to rehabilitation and recovery as part of their mental health journey. The essay will focus on the care of one client with depression and suicidal ideation, looking not at the acute phase of mental health care, but the rehabilitation phase where the client is being supported into ways of managing symptoms and returning to a useful, active social life where they can function effectively within society. The essay focuses on the goals and principles enshrined in the NSF for Mental Health (DoH, 1999), that of achieving the best possible standards of health and wellbeing for the client and the best possible control of their symptoms. It will explore the rationales and process of the therapeutic intervention, and use this intervention within a person-centred model of counselling, support and care. Client Background and History The client, who for the purposes of this essay will be called Lisa (this being a pseudonym used to ensure client confidentiality), is a 19 year old young woman with a history of depression and suicidal ideation. Lisa first presented to the local mental health services at the age of 16, after an acute episode of physical self harm and attempted suicide. Lisa’s self-harming behaviour takes the form of cutting, usually to the arms, legs and abdomen, although she has been known at times to also cut her face and neck. During her first admission, Lisa was diagnosed as having Depression with Psychotic symptoms. She has been managed with a combination of Fluoexetine and a range of other medications, but is known to have frequent relapse due to medication non-compliance. Lisa has a complex personal and social history which goes some way to explaining her current state of mental ill health. She was abandoned by her single parent mother at the age of 11, from which time until the age of 16 she spent in local authority care, a mixture of foster homes and care facilities. At age 16 she left care and went on the streets, but at 17 after her third hospital admission was able to get into a social support programme, secure accommodation for herself, and start to attend college. Lisa is still at college, studying beauty therapy. She has a history of sexual abuse, but for the past year and a half has been living a relatively stable life, with a good social life and a busy college life. Lisa has presented this time with a relapse in her Depression, and has demonstrated a strong suicidal ideation, low mood and being very withdrawn and apathetic. She has, this time, attempted suicide through overdose of a friend’s prescribed medication accompanied by severe cutting to the arms, legs and breasts. After being medically stabilised, she was admitted to the mental health ward, and after two weeks on the ward, fully compliant with her medication, was making some progress towards rehabilitation. Discussion Norman and Ryrie (2004) describe mental health nursing as a process of working with clients to allow them to develop the skills to regain control over their lives through managing their mental health. Ultimately, mental health nursing supports clients into a phase of recovery (Tschudin, 1995), which means that they are not overwhelmed by their symptoms and can manage them through a combination of medication, personal supportive therapies, and other support, in order to lead ‘normal’ lives within society and achieve personal goals. Mental health nursing is based upon a range of principles, some of which are scientific, some of which are more holistic (Norman and Ryrie, 2004). Mental health nursing supports clients through the acute phases of their illness, via crisis management, and through the chronic stages of their illness, through longer-term processes of rehabilitation (Perkins and Repper, 2004). Quite often, mental health service users are viewed in terms of their d isease and its treatment, but the provision of true client-centred care should start off with a good understanding of the client and their condition, their particular needs, and then be followed by a judgement about how best to help them towards recovery along the spectrum of mental health and illness (Perkins and Repper, 2004; Foreyt and Poston, 1999). Recovery cannot be considered as a finite point in time, but as an ongoing balance between the client and their illness, wherein the client aims to achieve the ability to function at the level they desire, through accessing appropriate support (Perkins and Repper, 2004; Greenberger and Padesky, 1995)). The judgement about what kind of support is best is based upon a number of factors, but most often, the decision about which of the many approaches to supportive therapies and counselling will be used is based upon both the client need, and the mental health nurse’s own knowledge about, experience of, and preference for, a parti cular form of therapy (Puentes, 2004). Mental health nurses, therefore, must have a good understanding of themselves, their philosophical orientation in relation to counselling, and the therapies on offer, and are most likely to provide those with which they have the most familiarity. In this case, the author is describing their own philosophical approach as matching that of their clinical practice mentor, who, as an experienced mental health nurse, is a strong advocate of client centred approaches to counselling. Gamble and Curthouys (2004) describe these approaches as being founded on Rogerian principles that include empathy, genuineness and unconditional positive regard. Rogers (1957 in Gamble and Curthouys, 2004) suggest that within a therapeutic relationship, which is a supportive relationship between client and nurse, with the express goal of attaining rehabilitation or recovery, there should be certain features which support the client towards ‘functionality’. Thus, there needs to be contact between tw o people, nurse and client, in which the client is in a condition of incongruence, and the nurse a state of congruence, and in which the nurse displays unconditional positive regard, and empathetic understanding, towards the client (Rogers, 1957 in Gamble and Curthouys, 2004). The nurse must be able to communicate these factors to the client, within the client’s frame of reference (Rogers, 1957 in Gamble and Curthouys, 2004 Bryant-Jefferies (2006) argues that the therapeutic relationship must be founded on empathy, and that in order to achieve empathy the nurse must employ active listening, and must attend to all the signs and the kinds of communication which the client displays, providing a sense of being ‘present’ with the client in whatever experience they are retelling or currently experiencing. One of the more challenging aspects of developing such a relationship with the client is the provision of unconditional positive regard, which Bozarth and Wilkins (2001 in Bryant-Jefferies, 2006) describe as an ongoing, unceasing and unflagging ‘warm acceptance’ of the individual, regardless of what they might say. Some authors describe this as the element of the therapeutic relationship that is most likely to support the client towards recovery (Bozarth and Wilkins, 2001 in Bryant-Jefferies, 2006). In this case, the mental health nurse (the author’s mentor) who was the prima ry support person for the client, fully aspired to such principles and to the concept of developing the best possible therapeutic relationship with the client. The literature consistently demonstrates that the quality of the therapeutic relationship is fundamental to the client achieving a state of mental health and wellbeing (DoH, 2001; DoH, 2006; Nice, 2004). The author agreed with this and felt that their own therapeutic philosophy was founded upon similar principles, making it appropriate to get involved in the case. The client was also happy to have the author present, as they were involved in there are from admission, and had spent some time observing the client during the acute phase to prevent further self harm. Depression is a surprisingly common, yet often serious mental illness, which can present in a variety of ways, with features such as â€Å"low mood, lack of enjoyment and interest, reduced energy, sleep disturbance,appetite disturbance, reduced confidence and self-esteem, and pessimistic thinking† (Embling, 2002; p 33). According to Embling (2002), these symptoms can have a significant effect on people’s ability to take part in normal daily life or social activities, and in particular, the low mood and predisposition towards pessimistic thoughts can have a negative impact on thought processes, leading to suicidal ideation (Rollman et al, 2003).. There are a number of individual and social issues which have been shown to have an association with depression, including physical illness (acute and chronic), poverty or low socioeconomic status and deprivation, divorce, bereavement or relationship breakdown, loss of a job or sudden, negative change in circumstances, ethnic minority status, and concomitant mental illness (Embling, 2002). It is a chronic condition which can manifest in acute episodes which are often successfully managed with pharmacological and non-pharmacological support, but the relapse rate is high for many patients (Embling, 2002). It can range from mild depression to severe depression or anywhere along a spectrum in between (Rollman et al, 2003). A wide variety of therapeutic approaches have been used in treating this illness, and in Lisa’s case, she had had some success previously with solution-focused brief therapy, but had found herself relapsing once regular, close contact with a mental health nurse had lapsed. Lisa admitted that she felt the time was right to take control of her life and find ways of coping with her illness more independently, and was keen for strategies which would allow her to avoid having such serious relapses, because they themselves had a negative effect on her life and potential career. Therefore, it was agreed that CBT might be the optimal approach. Luty et al (2007) argue that CBT is not always the most efficacious therapeutic choice for severe depression, but in Lisa’s case, it seemed worth trying, particularly as her worst symptoms were related to not maintaining her medication, and once she was on her medication, the focus had to be on keeping her well enough to keep taking the tablets. Other literature suggests that CBT is effective in patients who have had a history of sexual abuse (Price et al, 2001) This seemed to imply that the focused approach to support that CBT offered would the right way, particularly as it is so focused on relapse p revention. According to NACBT (2007) cognitive behavioural therapy is the term used to describe a variety of therapeutic or interpersonal interventions, all of which are characterised by a focus on the importance of how clients think, and how this thinking impacts upon their feelings, their responses to stimuli and stressors, and their actions. Its value lies in the fact that it is structured, directive, and also time-limited, strong focusing client and nurse on the current problem, on how the client feels and thinks at the single point in time that therapy is taking place (Embling, 2002). CBT is based on â€Å"the theory that the way an individual behaves is determined by his or her idiosyncratic view of a particular situation, thus the way we think determines the way we feel and behave †(Embling, 2002p 34). According to Embling (2002), Beck et al (1979) introduced CBT , suggesting that â€Å"CBT can treat depression as it helps the client to evaluate and modify distorted thought processes and dysfunctional behaviours† (Embling, 2002) p 38). According to NACBT (2007) CBT has expanded within the therapeutic domain to include a range of approaches based upon the sample principles, including, Rational Behaviour Therapy, Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy , Rational Living Therapy, Cognitive Therapy, and Dialectic Behaviour Therapy, all of which are based on what are described as â€Å"cognitive models of social response†. These in turn have been based on philosophical principles derived from Socratic thought, wherein individuals aim to attain a state of calm and tranquillity when challenged by stressful or difficult situations and experiences (NACBT, 2007). Thus the idea is to modulate the responses to life and experiences which precipitate symptoms of mental illness. The coun sellor directs the client to use inductive methods combined with principles of rational thinking and educative approaches, to support behavioural self-managed over the longer term , (NACBT, 2007; Sensky et al, 2000) and to prevent relapses (Bruce et al, 1999). Therefore, in CBT, the nurse provides the client with the ability to explore their behaviours, their responses and their typical symptomatic responses in particular in certain situations, and assists them in developing ways of mediating such responses so that they do not relapse into behaviours characteristic of their illness (Sensky et al, 2000; RCP, 2007; BABCP, 2007). Management of Lisa’s Care To begin with, it was really important to ensure that Lisa’s counselling and therapy was truly person-centred, in order to develop a good relationship between Lisa, the primary nurse and the author (NELMH, 2007; Moyle, 2003). The author hoped that Lisa would respond well to this approach because it would allow for the demonstration of empathy and a good understanding of how her life, previous mental illness and personal circumstances were contributing to her current illness, and therefore would support congruence in provision of support to meet her needs and address her specific concerns. However, the difficulty in achieving congruence here was that the author could not really claim to fully understand the effects of Lisa’s previous experience of sexual abuse or really relate to her experiences, and in particular, the author found some elements of her history, including the stories she told relating the sexual abuse, as very disturbing. The author discussed this with th e nurse mentor prior to the counselling sessions, and discussed how to achieve that true sense of congruence and presence, without communication their own abhorrence of the experiences that Lisa was relating. It was decided that it would be acceptable to tell Lisa that the author was appalled by these experiences, because this would underline the fact that she should not have had to suffer this abuse and that she was right to seek help in dealing with the effects on her mental health. Therefore, the author was able to enter into this counselling in supportive frame of mind, and able to achieve empathy without communicating negative feelings to the client. The focus of Lisa’s CBT was on the suicidal ideation/self-harming and the low mood and self-abhorrence that were the main manifestations of her depression. Collins and Cutcliffe (2003) show that one of the most common features displayed by mental health service users with suicidal ideation is hopelessness. This was certainly the case for Lisa, who displayed a sever pessimism about life and her ability to achieve anything like lasting recovery. Her goals to become a beauty therapist seemed unobtainable, and she felt she had no hope of making a new life for herself that was not ‘ruined’ by her previous life. However, Collins and Cutcliffe (2003) recommend CBT for this kind of pessimistic thinking because it focuses the client on establishing ‘hopefulness’ within their thought patterns. Other research shows that suicide risk can be reduced if individuals can experience others showing concern for them (Casey et al, 2006). This was supported by the author’s and the mentor’s firm belief in the efficacy of CBT for clients such as Lisa (Joyce et al, 2007). Thus, it was possible to establish an initial level of trust, and through the therapeutic relationship, the author was able to support Lisa in exploring her conditional assumptions (Curran et al, 2006) which led to the ongoing, spiralling pessimism, and then using CBT, we were able to set goals for each counselling session, set ‘homework’ which focused on self-management, and then reflect on progress as each session followed the previous one (Curran et al, 2006). The sessions focused on relapse prevent ion through changing cognitive patterns and schema, rehearsing relapse drills, and ensuring ongoing compliance with medication (Papakostas et al, 2003. While some authors argue for the need for inclusion of family or carers in therapeutic interventions such as (Chiocca, 2007), this was not possible with Lisa because she had no family and although she had a number of good friends made through her college course, none of them knew of her mental illness. The focus was therefore on health education, developing personal skills, and helping Lisa to cope with issues such as her current socioeconomic status (Jackson et al, 2006; Cutler et al, 2004). . Conclusion If, as Calloway (2007 p 106) suggests â€Å"nursing is defined as a profession that protects, promotes, and restores health and that which prevents illness and injury†, then using such a client-empowering form of therapy, one which is based on the development of realistic coping mechanisms (Salkovskis, 1995; Deakin, 1993), was the right approach with Lisa. Discussion with her revealed that focusing on relapse prevention, within an honest therapeutic relationship which addressed the factors affecting her mental health, and addressed the ways of thinking and behaviours which led to relapse, was the right approach, because these were, fundamentally, her primary needs. The person-centred approach, in particular, seemed to give her the positive, ongoing interpersonal contact she needed, such that she did demonstrate signs of moving into a state of rehabilitation and recovery. References BABCP (2007) CBT Today36 (3) Available form www.babcp.com Accessed 5-1-09 Bozarth, J. and Wilkins, P. (eds) (2001) Rogers’ Therapeutic Conditions: evolution, theory and practice Ross-on-Wye: PCCS Books. In: Bryant-Jeffries, R. (2006) Counselling for Eating Disorders in Women: Person-centred dialogues Oxford: Radcliffe. Bruce, T.J., Spiegel, D.A. and Hegel, M.T. (1999) Cognitive-behavioural therapy helps prevent relapse and recurrence of panic disorder following alprazolam discontinuation. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 67 (1) 151-156. Bryant-Jeffries, R. (2006) Counselling for Eating Disorders in Women: Person-centred dialogues Oxford: Radcliffe. Calloway, S. (2007) Mental Health Promotion: Is Nursing Dropping the Ball?. 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Collaborative Fund-Raising Activity Essay

The strategies that I feel that will solve the funding needs for Phoenix Homeless Agency (PHA) the best is having volunteers, having different type of fundraisers, and accepting donations of any amount. The reason for these three is because they are a more successful way of solving the struggle the agency having. Having volunteers will allow the help of volunteered peers that are concerned and willing to help out to continue providing job counseling to qualify recipients. They will help to get the word around by doing things that the agency would want or maybe what they suggest to help out that will make the agency successful. By having many different fundraisers will set a great deed for making money to uphold a quality that the agency require by doing fundraisers the community may enjoy attending to. Examples of some of the different fundraisers people may enjoy that I would consider are bake sales, auctions, garage sales, or even something like a kids/parent night. Successfully raising large amounts of money requires a focused, strategic effort involving careful planning and coordination. Taking donations is a common strategy to use by raising money because you appreciate whatever that is offered by anyone that will help when you are in need of help because everything helps if it is not much. Cash donations are a straightforward strategy because many will use it as a tax deduction because cash contributions can be claimed for a tax deduction up to fifty percent on their modified adjusted gross income.

Foreign and indian education Essay

Anyone who has studied in Indian schools and colleges will vouch for the fact that Indian Education system churn out more engineers, doctors and MBAs in comparison to any other country in the world. This has partly got to do with the mentality of Indian parents who believe that sole purpose of educating their kids is to find a well paying job. In India, parents have a huge influence on the major life decisions of their children including which school or college they attend, what branch of education their kids pursue and even which job they take up later in life. No doubt this creates a huge pool of educated individuals but the quality leaves a lot to be desired. Indian Education System From a very young age it is ingrained in the minds of Indian children that the purpose of education is to find a suitable job. This creates an impression on the minds of these children which is difficult to correct at a later stage. Individual aptitude towards any vocation, interests in any particular stream is sacrificed in the pursuit of a degree, which makes them job ready. The consequences towards this approach of education is that in the short term there is a boom in the number of professionals however in the long term areas like researches, arts and allied areas take a beating. This is dangerous for a developing economy like India. This creates a rat race to get admission in reputed educational institutes right from school level putting pressure on youngsters to perform in subjects which might not necessarily appeal to them resulting in disappointment when unable to perform. Foreign Education System Foreign education, on the contrary in general and western education in particular focuses more on individual interests, learning abilities and aptitude towards any vocations. The social system also supports individual education to a great extend unlike India, the purpose of foreign education system is not to land a job to make a living but holistic development of individuals. The performance measurement and grading system in foreign countries encourages blooming of individuals talents in diverse fields and does not restrict children to mere classroom studies. This approach is more practical and suited to overall individual development. Hence the focus of foreign education system is creating individuals with a broad outlook towards all aspects and does not narrow the purpose of education just for the purpose of getting a job. Both approaches have their pros and cons while education system might create more professionals it definitely needs to broaden its scope and focus more on grooming tomorrow’s citizens who can lead the country in all areas. Foreign education system is more liberal in its attitude which can sometime proof counterproductive especially when children from different educational backgrounds experience it for the first time. If we are to compare both education systems, both have their own merits however looking at the broader picture all we can say is it is up to the individual. As Mark Twain, once said, â€Å"Don’t let schooling interfere with your child’s education!† Education is the key foundation for the success of any country and the betterment of any individual. However, given the culture and mindset of different races, there is a different approach towards education. And to be more precise, there is a difference between the approach towards education in the western countries and in India. Apparently, the fundamental is that there is a chalk and cheese difference in the objective of education in both sides. Apparently, the foreign students treat education more like a learning process. On the other hand, they choose the line they are interested in and go only for that course and line of career. In this process, they tend to wait for the right kind of job and don’t really consider time as a hindrance. On the other hand, the objective of education in India has more to do with a fat salaried job, overseas chances, better marriage prospects, status in society etc. However, analysts on both sides say there is a lot of difference in terms of competition, aptitude and the job markets in both hemispheres. While things are rather relaxed owing to the lesser population, more streamlined procedure and lack of unfair means, things are quite different when it comes to India. As such, money becomes the root cause since most of the higher end courses are taken on study loan. So, it is more about circumstances than choices for many students. However, to those who manage to get admission in the foreign schools, once adaptability is achieved, the path is set and clear. Also, given the infrastructure, access to various resources and other facilities, the quality tends to be higher in terms of conducive learning. Though changes are being noticed in India with top league B-Schools focusing on quality and better infrastructure, there is still that gap between foreign schools and Indian educational institutions. With globalisation happening rapidly and economies getting tighter in developed countries, changes are being noticed so let us see how things take shape.1)The big difference is whatever discarded theories we learn in india those theories are not lernt by foreign people 2)Most part of their education is covered under practicals Well to be practical foreign education is a bit better than Indian education but in a certain aspect. Let me just put some flashlight on few areas why Indian’s prefer foreign education: Jobs: This is the main reason why people go abroad and spend millions of money on it. Many students are directly placed in foreign companies and so they prefer foreign education. Other reasons why it is better is that there is a better understanding and relationship between teachers and students. Schools have an open environment of teaching and has got no shyness on topics such as sex. In India no topic such as sex is taught in any school. Students are encouraged to work on their own projects on science and incentives are provided to them. Here ther’s no such sort of a thing. You are on your own. But recently there has been a boom in our Indian education as we are developing and becoming better than other nations. Due to recession many students are now preferring to stay in India now and pursue their course here as in abroad IT sector is the major head of earnings in companies. Foreign companies are suffering a blow down thereby leading to decline in jobs. If we consider the management area, then yeah we may say that foreign is better in providing management degrees than India. We have here only 10-15 reputed colleges which offer good MBA degree. Of these 10-15 the competition is killing and you really need to tie your boots if you wanna get into them. Regarding Science scenario we are in with other nations. Consider for example the CERN EXPERIMENT. This experiment consisted of colliding two protons. The experiment was successful which was feared by many people as it would lead to collapse of earth planet. The CERN association consisted of more than 200 Indian scientists. I totally agree with Lenin’s statement about what he said on professional value of degree. If we do Phd. or masters degree from abroad it has a greater value than the one done from India. Rest I would say that its totally the mindset of the person who wishes to pursue his education either from India or foreign. Mostly students who pursue from abroad have a greater bank balance and so utilize money by showing their standards. Other reasons are that often students of rich families who are not able to get into top Indian colleges in engineering and mbbs head for abroad. Believe me its true. It happens in medical field. Many students pursue their MBBS from abroad due to non selection in Indian colleges. The basic and most important difference between the two educational systems is the stress on math that is given in India (and Europe, I have been told) at the elementary and high school level itself. Mathematics, in my humble opinion, teaches students logical and rational thinking – it lays the foundation of independent and lateral thinking. Indian schools start teaching maths, like multiplication tables, at the elementary level itself. It is given a lot of importance and is a must for students who plan to do science related study in college. On the other hand, high school in America is so flexible that a lot of students who end up majoring in sciences in college do not take advanced maths and calculus in high school. In general, I found that at the end of their 1st year of university, math majors in the US are equivalent to high school graduates in India in terms of math study. This emphasis on maths in high schools and engineering programs is also the reason why India produces so many â€Å"good† software engineers. The analytical thinking taught by mathematics is exactly what is required for software development. The flexibility of the American education system is its greatest strength and also its greatest weakness. Students can choose among a host of classes and courses in high school and college. This means they can change their major (i.e. field of study) midway through college. This usually means that students in the US receive more exposure to a variety of subjects and hence, are more aware of their career options and opportunities. However, the downside is that they can avoid taking courses which are hard in their major. The computer science students in my department in the US are often criticized for avoiding a lot of important computer science courses by taking easier courses from other departments that fulfill their degree requirements. On digging deeper into the root of the problem, I realized that the general problem with the American education (high school and college) system is that it is designed so as not to reduce/hurt the self-esteem of any kid in class. So, the system is designed in such a way that nearly everyone can pass the high-school level. This leads to lowering the standards at the high school, which in turn leads to lowering the standards for college entrance too and subsequent college programs. So, college students in, say, computer science, are learning much less and at a much slower pace than the students in computer science programs in India and Europe This is one of the main reasons why most of the graduate students in computer science in the US are foriegn students; American students are just not able to compete with the quality of foriegn student applicants. College education is becoming common place, with a large proportion of high school graduates opting for it. Universities are under pressure from state governments to take in more students, that is, in turn, leading to reduced quality and lower standards (quality*quantity=constant). Universities are just not able to cope with the quick increases and the corresponding lack of good faculty. The situation is not improving either ! People kick and scream about the fact that immigrants are taking over the country and the hi-tech jobs, but very few people are examining the reasons why this is happening. Most people are fiercely defensive about the country and refuse to believe that anything can be wrong with the country’s education system since they are the technology leaders. However, nobody realizes or admits that this, to a great extent, is due to brain inflow of immigrants from Asia (India included) and Europe. However, the flip side of the coin is that the Indian education and social systems are very hard on kids and completely ignore their feelings, opinions and ambitions. Kids are pushed to study from the age of 3 and non-performers are treated as dolts and ostracized by parents and society. The preferred choice of learning and teaching is memorizing facts. These facts do help in the long run; the multiplication tables we learned in elementary school keep us ahead of our American peers who need a calculator to find out what 6 times 7 is ! However, the memorization approach to study does not allow and teach kids to think independently. The American school system lays stress on individual ability development and encourages kids to express themselves and their opinions from an early age. As a result, most Americans are way better at getting their point across as compared to people from other countries. However, again, the downside of this is that students in the US who are more out-spoken do well in class and outside class too only because they are more effective speakers. In the Indian system, individuals are not asked to stand up infront of the whole class and recite something. Instead, the whole class reads books out aloud together in unison. This allows more timid students to participate and overcome their fear of public speaking (since they are actually speaking with a group). Individual speaking is only done with the teacher one-on-one during â€Å"oral† examinations, where students are asked questions on the subject matter. Both systems work, however, in the Indian system, just because you can’t speak well, does not mean you don’t do well in class. But students in the US build more self-confidence and are much better at public speaking. Indian students on the other hand find it hard to learn to speak up or express their opinions (I know those are really broad generalizations). Classroom discussion and asking questions to the professors is encouraged. However, in India, professors expect you to treat them like God and often use their almost dictorial powers against students who upset them in some way. On a different note, another observation I made, while I was a teaching assistant (TA) for a senior level (3rd-4th year) class of computer science undergraduates, is that their focus in class and attitude towards the course was completely exam-oriented (ofcourse, there were some highly motivated and intelligent students too). They constantly wanted to know if what was being discussed would be on the quiz or the final. Almost no one in the class was attempting to understand concepts. They wanted to learn to solve all the kinds of problems that may appear in the quiz. One may argue that this is a natural thing for students to want. But the fact of the matter is that the American college education system is industry-oriented and hence, is structured so that it produces people who can do a certain type of job efficiently. So it is like a custom-design factory which produces engineers/workers who can do one or two jobs very well but require massive retraining if they have to do something new. In contrast, the education in India (and Europe) is more towards teaching the basic concepts and a broader mass of information. The products of this education system, are therefore capable of taking up several different types of jobs and are not masters of any single job. To do any single job well, they have to go through some amount of training at work. Another realization that the other TA and myself made was that the students wanted to be â€Å"spoon-fed† and told exactly what they needed to do, in order to do well in the course. This mentality of always being told to read something, do some assignment and essentially, being given goal-oriented tasks to perform, works great when students are being trained to work in the industry. And this is an admirable goal – America is built on the strength of these students who can perform what they have been told to do. However, in the long run, these people are not able to adapt quickly to changes in the industry. And they are definitely not prepared to go to graduate school (for a master’s or a Phd). Graduate school is very different from undergraduate school. There is no single book being followed; the reading and writing assignments require paper chases and are ambiguously defined. Also, most courses do not have regular evaluations such as quizes etc. but rely on a final project or term paper – this makes it very hard for one to know how much effort one needs to put into the course. One has to come out of the â€Å"spoonfeed me† mode and learn to think independently. This lack of spoonfeeding in graduate school also means that one has to be motivated by themselves – especially in PhD programs. The amount that you get out of your master’s or PhD depends on the amount of work you put in (more work also means faster graduation). There is no one motivating you to work harder or checking on your progress regularly. (By the way, my arguments in the Master’s versus PhD debate are available here) Something I would like to stress is that the situation I have described is for public universities in the US. Private liberal arts universities provide much better personalized attention to students besides a broader education. Also, non-science programs are stronger in general in the US due to the fact that they follow regular quarter or semester systems – in India, non-science programs usually have year long schedules with exams at the end of the year, whereas in the US, these programs have regular quizes and exams like all other science programs. On the other hand, most university students in India waste their whole year doing nothing; attendence requirements are very low and usually can be bypassed. Overall, I feel that the high school system in the US leaves students at a disadvantage when compared to their peers in India, Europe and perhaps the rest of Asia too. Some Americans cannot point out all the states in the United States on a map, let alone know anything about India (read the humorous commonly asked questions about India or watch Jay Leno’s street walk). This leads me to conclude that an Indian education is overall better atleast till the undergraduate degree (for engineering). However, graduate programs in the US are probably far ahead of most other countries due to the critical mass they have and the fact that they attract the best students and faculty from all over the world.

Farmingville Case Study PT 1 Essay - 1311 Words

Farmingville Case Study PT 1 1. Alien in one definition is: â€Å"Too different from something to be acceptable or suitable,† and Illegal in one definition is â€Å"Not allowed by the law.† (Mirriam-Webster Dictionary) The words ‘Alien’ and ‘Illegal’ have inherent negative connotations. A person does not need to know the intimate or factual circumstances associated with those words to understand their symbolism. When those words are used to label the social group of undocumented Latino day laborers the inherent reaction is to see them in a negative way. The individuals become a stigmatized group. The people against undocumented immigrants in Farmingville saw the Latinos through the lens of the stigmatized group â€Å"illegal aliens.† They thus became†¦show more content†¦The people from the baby boomer generation are all nearing, if not already in, retirement and old age. Over the next 20 years the amount of elderly people of retirement age is supposed to incr ease somewhere around 50%. Because of this imbalance there will be a lot of money being directed toward taking care of the baby boomer generation which may lead to decreased funding for younger generations. The baby boomers will all retire around the same time, leaving jobs unfilled. There may also be troubles in the housing market as there may not be enough young people to buy all the houses they sell. The number of immigrants in America are increasing and replacing the baby boomers in being the dominating group in our population. 6. Immigrants are the inevitable solution because they will pick up the economic slack that will be left after the baby boomers retire. I don’t think that they are the best solution, ideally our native born citizens would be able to maintain our economy, but that’s not realistic. Better to have immigrants contributing and helping the economy than sink into a depression. 7. Browning is the phenomena of the huge increase of Latino immigrants. The amount of Latino immigrants are outnumbering the amount of white and black people. In Farmingville there were so many immigrants they were living 10-20 to a house, could be seen on street corners waiting for work and loitering at places like 7/11. In short