In this assignment, you are to use the same corporation you selected and focused on for the Strategic Management and Strategic Competitiveness assignment.

Using the corporation you chose from the Week 3 assignment, Strategic Management and Strategic Competitiveness, examine the industry in which the entity operates. Use any or all of the following resources to conduct research on the company:

• Company website.
• Public filings from the Securities and Exchange Commission’sFilings & Forms page.
• Strayer University’s online databases.
• The Lexis Advance database.
• Other miscellaneous sources.Note: the company’s annual report will often provide insights that other resources may not include.

Use the External and Internal Environments Template [DOC] to ensure that your assignment meets the requirements.

Requirements

Write a 4–6   page paper in which you do the following:

• Choose the two segments of the general environment that would rank highest in their influence on the corporation you chose.
  • Assess how these segments affect the corporation you chose and the industry in which it operates.
• Considering the five forces of competition, choose the two that you estimate are the most significant for the corporation you chose. 
  • Evaluate how well the company has addressed these two forces in the recent past.
• With the same two forces in mind, predict what the company might do to improve its ability to address these forces in the near future.
• Assess the external threats affecting this corporation and the opportunities available to the corporation.
  • Give your opinions on how the corporation should deal with the most serious threat and the greatest opportunity. Justify your answer.
• Give your opinion on the corporation’s greatest strengths and most significant weaknesses.
  • Choose the strategy or tactic the corporation should select to take maximum advantage of its strengths, and the strategy or tactic the corporation should select to fix its most significant weakness. Justify your choices.
• Determine the company’s resources, capabilities, and core competencies.
• Go to the Strayer University Online Library to locate three quality references. Note:Wikipedia and similar websites do not qualify as academic resources. 

This course requires the use of Strayer Writing Standards. For assistance and information, please refer to the Strayer Writing Standards link in the left-hand menu of your course. Check with your professor for any additional instructions. 

The specific course learning outcome associated with this assignment is as follows:

• Analyze the effects of the general environment, competition, threats, opportunities, strengths, and weaknesses relative to a corporation

Discussion 4 

Post due by Wednesday and replies by Friday!

The following are the heights (in inches) of five starters in a basketball team.

In this discussion you will compare and talk about the mean of smaller samples and will compare these sample means with the population mean of those five players.

So, first compute and mention the population mean of these five players. That is, compute the mean of these five players. Next, create samples of size two (all possible pairs among all five players, there are ten total pairs that you can come up). Compute the mean of each sample of size two (each pair, again you will compute ten means in this step). Compare all these ten sample means with the actual population mean of all five players. Next, create all possible samples of size four (they are five groups where you will have four players in each group). Compute the mean of each of these groups which contain four players and compare these sample means with the actual population mean that you computed at the beginning.

Your task is to write a conclusion on your observations made as the size of your sample increases. What is your conclusion after comparing the samples means with the actual population mean?  (17 points)

Reply, help, ask, comment on at least two classmates’ posts providing sufficient and thoughtful feedback. Make this a discussion.  (8 points)

You must reply before seeing others. 

Activity 4- Uploaded Assignment 

SOCW 6530 WK 4 Peer responses 

Respond to the blog posts of three colleagues in one or more of the following ways:

Share an insight from having read your colleague’s posting.

Make a suggestion to your colleague’s post.

MUST RESPOND TO EACH ONE SEPARATELY CITE EVERYTHING AND FULL REFERENCES

PEER 1 Alicia Simpkins  

When in the field, assessment is a great way to gather information to further understand what issues are being faced by the client. The assessment can usually refer to general information such as an intake, or through more comprehensive measures where further information is gathered to determine client needs and to begin the process of formulating a treatment plan. Challenge may come when it comes to confidentiality and getting clients to understand when confidentiality is sacred or when it can be broken. The text mentions that “client confidentiality is considered sacred and fiercely protected by social work professionals…practicum students are often unsure how the concept is defined and practiced in their field settings, particularly when the use of technology is routine part of agency life” (Birkenmaier & Berg-Weger, 2018). Clients may have an understanding that whatever they share is confidential, but it does become a challenge in assessment when there may be some information that has to be disclosed, and they don’t want it to be disclosed. Also, having clients that are unwilling to engage during the assessment process can be challenging as well.

I think that ways to address challenges could include building a rapport with the client. The client should be able to trust you and trust you and your judgment. If a client is able to trust you and trust the information that is being relayed to them, then they may get a sense of safety and in turn be willing to engage.

References

Birkenmaier, J., & Berg-Weger, M. (2018). The practicum companion for social work: Integrating class and fieldwork.New York, NY: Pearson.

Peer 2 Audri Kaufman 

Completing an assessment is the second part of the generalist intervention model following the engagement process (Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2018). In order to conduct a proper assessment with a client however, it is best to have established good rapport. Thus, the engagement process is essential for building a strong and trusting worker-client relationship. Unfortunately some practice models do not allow for sufficient time needed in order to establish any rapport. This is an example of a potential challenge for completing assessments. According to Birkenmaier and Berg-Weger (2018), assessments completed in practice often include collecting confidential and sensitive information. Without an established trusting worker-client relationship in place, it might be difficult to obtain accurate information from the client as the client may be more reluctant to share such personal information with a worker they do not yet know very well.

In hospice home health, some accommodations and adjustments to home healthcare had to be made in order to limit the amount of staff visits into the patients home. For this reason, hospice social workers and spiritual counselor have had to complete more sessions by phone that would have otherwise been conducted in the home. As an intern at Valley’s Best Hospice, I was tasked to call all of the primary contacts listed for each patient and complete a Bereavement Risk Assessment with each of them over the phone. This was a bit uncomfortable for me as most of the patients and/or family members that I was calling I had never met before. The questions on the Bereavement Risk Assessment ask if the family member/caregiver is feeling any “spiritual distress”, or feelings of anger/guilt/or fear in regards to the dying process, if they are prepared or unprepared for the dying process, if they have any trouble with substance abuse or alcohol abuse, if they have experienced multiple losses in recent years, if they have a difficult time processing loss, if they have experienced any traumatic deaths, history of mental illness, history of family violence, and any current suicidal thoughts or intent to harm themselves or others. Most of the time the family member/caregiver was willing to share but I could tell for some they were a bit more reluctant, one even asked what was the purpose of the assessment. I always tried to explain ahead of time that the assessment would take less than five minutes and that the purpose was to check-in and make sure they are holding up ok.

I have only completed about half of these assessments that I need to complete and since the State of California has just lifted all COVID-19 restrictions, I would like to see about being able to complete the remainder of the Bereavement Risk Assessments in person. It is definitely more easier to collect such personal and confidential information once having met the individual in person. I also find it a bit rude or cold to be asking such intrusive questions over the phone rather in person. For this reason, I plan to ask my supervisor at my next day in the office to allow me to complete the assessment at the home of the patient and in person with the family member/caregiver. 

References

Birkenmaier, J., & Berg-Weger, M. (2018). The practicum companion for social work: Integrating class and fieldwork (4th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.

Kirst-Ashman, K. K., & Hull, G. H., Jr. (2018). Understanding generalist practice (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

PEER 3 Cheeia Xiong  

An explanation of potential challenges for assessment during your field education experience

Some potential challenges I have encountered during assessment are clients who suffer from substance abuse such as crystal meth. Clients also missed treatments due to drugs usages and they forget about their appointment. There has been many occasions when the client comes into treatment and they are talking nonstop the entire hour about absolutely nothing because they are high on crystal meth. In these kind of scenarios, it is really hard to assess their needs or even assess their situation or even establish a rapport with them. Also, this bring me to another thing and that is boundaries during assessment as well. You cannot cross boundaries during assessment because that can also ruined your professional relationship as well. I always hear my social workers say “don’t work harder than them” and that is something I keep mindful of during assessment. 

An explanation of personal action plans you might take to address assessment in your field education experience

My supervisor mentioned that they are a nonprofit organization so they have two years to be in the program and they can be exit from the program if they are not meeting goals. Therefore, we cannot control what they can and cannot do when they come to treatment. One personal action plan is to be culturally competent and use skills like empathy and communication to better understand their situation (Birkenmaier & Berg-Weger, 2018). However, how I have addressed this problem is talking through different steps I can take with my supervisor. I will call the clients one day before their treatment and motivate them to come in by telling them beforehand about the session. Also, I use other skills during assessment like active listening skills. 

Reference 

Birkenmaier, J., & Berg-Weger, M. (2018). The practicum companion for social work: Integrating class and fieldwork (4th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson. Chapter 6, “Social Work Practice in the Field: Working with Individuals and Families” (pp. 117-154)

One study states, “Mental health has proved especially vulnerable to the ravages of managed care because its patients tend not to be assertive about their right to treatment and because the subjective nature of emotional distress makes it easier to deny or restrict, by way of pre-approvals and treatment reviews, than many medical conditions, whose symptoms can be documented with blood tests or X-rays.”

1. Do you think this is a fair statement?  Why or why not?
2. Discuss some of the responsibilities that managed care should have towards these individuals with mental health issues.

OPTIONAL READINGS:

Cancino, R. S., Jack, B. W., Jarvis, J., Cummings, A. K., Cooper, E., Cremieux, P. Y., & Burgess Jr, J. F. (2017). Health services utilization among fee-for-service Medicare and Medicaid patients under age 65 with behavioral health illness at an urban safety net hospital. Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy, 23(7), 781-788.

Essock, S. M. (2016). What to do when the managed care firm says no. JAMA Psychiatry, 73(11), 1109-1110.

Guerrero, E. G., Garner, B. R., Cook, B., Kong, Y., Vega, W. A., & Gelberg, L. (2017). Identifying and reducing disparities in successful addiction treatment completion: Testing the role of Medicaid payment acceptance. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention and Policy, 12

Magaard, J. L., Seeralan, T., Schulz, H., & Brütt, A. L. (2017). Factors associated with help-seeking behaviour among individuals with major depression: A systematic review. PLoS One, 12(5) M. B., M.A. (2017). Mental health services in primary care. Contemporary Pediatrics, 34(3), 30-34.

Nierengarten, M. B. (2017). Mental health services in primary care. Contemporary Pediatrics, 34(3), 30-34.

Richard, D. (2017). What is next for behavioral health in managed care? North Carolina Medical Journal, 78(1), 30-32. doi:10.18043/ncm.78.1.30

Williams, M. O., Gilroy, J. R., Chang, T. Y., & Seymour, D. J. (2017). Challenges for insured patients in accessing behavioral health care. The Annals of Family Medicine, 15(4), 363-365.

Website

The Managed Care Information Center (2014). Retrieved from http://www.themcic.com/.

National Committee for Quality Assurance (2017). HEDIS and Quality Management. Retrieved from http://www.ncqa.org/tabid/59/Default.aspx 

• Week 1 DiscussionDiscussion Topic Due July 15 at 11:59 PMAn Ecological Approach to Understanding Health Communication
  The discussion assignment provides a forum for discussing relevant topics for this week on the basis of the course competencies covered.
  For this assignment, make sure you post your initial response to the Discussion Area by the due date assigned.
  To support your work, use your course and text readings and also use outside sources. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.
  Start reviewing and responding to the postings of your classmates as early in the week as possible. Respond to at least two of your classmates. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between two or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Complete your participation for this assignment by the end of the week.
  Choose a health problem that you would like to create a health communication campaign for. This campaign will take place in your neighborhood. In deciding to create the campaign, you have decided to explore what impacts the health problem you have chosen, using the ecological model.
  Explore each factor of the ecological model for your chosen health concern and be specific when listing components. For instance, list specific nonprofit organizations dedicated to your health concern, list specific schools in your neighborhood, and so on.