Understanding specific needs in Health Social Care

Understanding specific needs in Health Social Care Understanding the specific needs in Health Social Care Table of Content Acknowledgement Table of Content Introduction 1.1 Roles of the health care agencies 1.2 Epidemiology of non infectious disease Epidemiology of infectious disease 1.3 Effectiveness of different strategies and approaches 2.1 Regulate healthcare methods 2.2 Relationship of health and social care service provision 2.3 Current lifestyle choices lead to future health and social services 3.1 Health and wellbeing priorities 3.2 Encouraging behavioral changes 3.3 Changes needed for improving Health and wellbeing Conclusion Recommendations References Introduction Without any doubt, health is the most important factor for a living being. A person’s life is depended on the well-being of health, not to mention all the regular activities are centered towards this. But with the increasing difficulties in regular living is making this very health deteriorating each day. It is very important for mass people to understand the basic of health dynamics. With the changes in the natural spectrum, huge changes have also taken place in human needs regarding needs of health and social care services. Not only the pattern has changed overtime, but also the perception towards these is transformed drastically. 1.1 The core concept- health changes in perception regarding health and social care services The fundamental pattern of health and social care is changed due to revolution in the need regarding this. There are various macro factors contributing to this, alongside the micro ones. In various countries, there are mammoth changes in the demographic pattern and the health literacy which has changed the whole landscape of health and social care services. To understand the perception of changing health and social care services it is very important to understand the underlying concepts like normality, disability, illness etc. Normality: Normality which is also known as normalcy depicts the behavior which is consistent with an individual’s most common behavior in terms of health factors. It is very vast term to describe and it in many cases it changes with the context. When it comes down to the definition of health, this normality is a very significant concept. A healthy state generally stands for normal and sound process of all the functions that drives a human being. Clinically normality represents the consistency between the bodily and psychological functions. The reverse is generally known as abnormality. Disability: Disability means partial or total forfeiture of a person’s bodily function which could be motor functionality, walking etc. As mentioned earlier this loss could be partial or complete and this could even be from birth. A person might have one disability or he could have multiple disabilities which could be ostensible for instance loss of a limb or it could also be in hidden form for example epilepsy or post-polio syndrome. Some types of disabilities are multiple-sclerosis, spina bifida etc. There was time when there was a norm in the society which permitted the stigma and discrimination. People tend to avoid and stigmatize the person with illness, disabilities and it kept going on for a long period of time. The ultimate result of this was that it made the whole situation way more difficult for the affected person and consequentially, it becomes really hard for them to recover from the illness. The problem of mental illness is a common phenomenon for example at some point of life out of every four people generally experiences mental health problem. Still approximately one in every ten children faces various mental health problems. With the changes in the condition health and social care services have changed drastically. On the positive side, the stigmatization and discrimination have been reduced significantly due to continuous awareness in mass level. 1.2 impact of social policy, legislation and culture on availability of services In the sector of health and social care, social policy along with legislation and culture play a great role when it comes to availability of necessary service for each a group of individuals having specific needs. If the social policy does not support the support the specific needs and patronize it in favorable way then it will become impossible to lead life in a favorable way. The legislation, in this case, is very important both on individual and mass level. For example, right now it is secretary of state’s responsibility to promote comprehensive health service all over UK which will lead to significant improvement in physical as well as mental health of the individual; in addition to this, the service will aid in not only the prevention but also the diagnosis of mental and physical issues. The outcome of the health and social care services will be measured based on the effective, quality and the experience of the concerned persons. In this regard, only legislation and policy will not suffice in the long run. To make this kind of practice sustainable and craft the system in such flexible way so that the changes can be made whenever it is necessary. To attain this objective, the services required for the individuals with specific needs have to turned into a culture which people will adhere to follow, not for just the sake of legislation that has to be followed in formal manner. 2.1 the mechanism of supporting individual with specific needs To attain this objective, the services required for the individuals with specific needs have to turned into a culture which people will adhere to follow, not for just the sake of legislation that has to be followed in formal manner. There are been number of cases of where health and social care do not work in harmony when it is about the meeting the specific needs of the individuals. Every year total number of people in UK requiring both health and social care is on an increasing trend. Just for example, total percentage of individuals crossing eighty five will double in the next twenty years which will arouse the complex need https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/making-sure-health-and-social-care-services-work-together of health care as well as social care. By complex need of health care we refer to multiple health problem at the same time which need to be backed up by the social care services. So far the most glaring issue is that, these two are not collaborating as per expected level. And this is turning into a big problem for the service takers. For example, a person after staying a while in hospital requiring final treatment is trying to know how many days he might have stay after treatment. Over the period of time, being in hospital became a gruesome experience for him; but this mental issue is mostly overlooked. This is just a representation of common scenario taking place most often. In many cases, one important parts either health care or social care is missing. When health and service care is joined up and given properly to the people, that has the highest probability of meeting individual need. This concept should be put into model and later on, it will work as a guiding principal for the health care and social care service providers. 2.2 evaluaiton of currently available system services Generally it is perceived that, when two services- health care and social care are collaborated it must be very beneficial for the people who are taking this service as well as for the service providers. But yet this notion is to be supported by number of facts. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14629210 there is an study done by Brown L, Tucker C by to evaluate the efficacy of the currently available system of health care and social care to meet the specific needs of the individuals. This study more of less represents the current scenario of available systems. The study was conducted among a group of aged persons who were given both health care and social care. In the initial stage the result was very much aspiring. The health care and social care needs were assessed successfully and in a timely manner. This was like a one stop approach for two big aspects catering the individual needs. The whole process of communication of the issue, understanding the aspect and the exchange of required information was drastically improved but it comes down to implementation this seemed not to work properly. Even though the individual need assessed properly, the problem started in the implementation level. The implementation of the service was not satisfactory because of the duly implementation as well as the follow up process. Innovation in the phase of implementation can play a great role as well as the change in implementation process also. Even though two entities giving health and social care services have the same goal they have different organizational structure, ideology and working process. During the implementation phase, it becomes very difficult to accommodate both services in subsequent point of time. So far in nationwide analysis, the same problem is been observed. Even though the general perception is that, the outcome has to be good naturally the fact is quite the opposite. In many cases the efficacy of current model is questioned thoroughly. To make these two services more appropriate and effective for the individual needs it is very important to do the organizational and legal fixes rather than just focusing first hand coordination portion. 3.1 understanding approaches intervention strategies supporting individual specific needs There can be a number of ways to support the individual need with health care and social care, but it is very important to come up with the best strategy and blend it effectively. Here the challenge is, each individual aspect for example health care can be appropriate in its own stance but when it comes to collaboration the approach will be different. Let us consider a common scenario- Autism where it is very important to use the perfect strategy to meet the individual specific need. Since there is hardly any permanent cure for autism, the professional bodies use a number of approaches that aid the concern in different ways. The most challenging aspect in this case is, there are never two individuals with exact same case of autism where a approach might perfect work one person, whereas the same approach will fail with slightly different case. http://www.autism.org.uk/living-with-autism/strategies-and-approaches.aspx before coming up with the exact approach it is highly important to gather all the relevant data pertaining to the autism for that specific individual. In addition to this, dealing with this is a long term approach, so while choosing the method one must be very careful and plan down the line what might take place. One standard startup intervention procedure is health and service based intervention. Apart from the health and service based intervention The starting intervention could be like behavioral and developmental intervention, motor and sensory intervention, counseling etc. Health and service based intervention takes places in multiple phases and it needs to be planned beforehand. Standard Health and service based intervention is planned based on the focus to constantly uphold the well being of the individual with autism which will require a vast range of treatment and therapies as well as well a number of sociological approach. The common scenario is to use variety of approaches and methods which generally include professional therapists, speech, langue therapist along with psychological therapists. This panel of therapists will be working together to ensure the proper development of the concern. This combination of different therapies is used with behavioral, motor sensory, augmentative in addition to alternative intervention method. Among these, the standard procedure of health care includes standard operational procedures like medication, psychotherapy, physiotherapy, speech pathology aiming at the development of speech and language. On the other ha nd, service based interventions generally include aiding people in education, development of social skills, day to day basis development on social skills, accessing the needs and change in those and respond accordingly. This is just the beginning. The challenge with autism is the lack of awareness and when people do not admit to have the autism. It is a common barrier for autism. The autism is most cases is invisible because it just possess few signs; so it becomes really difficult what exact health and social care needs are required for he particular individual and how it can be tailored to maximize the benefits. Starting from the daily rituals to particular special activities, everything needs to be chalked out and it needs to done on a daily basis. This is one approach dealing with the individual with autism. Another approach could be, after assessing all the possibilities, figuring out two or three most potential route to deal with the scenario and start trying those out in a co ntrolled setting for smaller time being. After getting the results, the best method will be carried forward. The disadvantage with this approach is that the change could have negative impact on the concern. That it is very important to access the health and social care needs thoroughly at first and then act on this. The social care support might be very extensive here, starting from the education it could end up in finding appropriate works. The employment service are designed in such a way that it suits individual abilities and needs and to make the approach successful the team of health and social care need to work closely with the family members, at least at the very first stage they need to collaborate with the concerned family to understand the early stage development scope and devise the plan accordingly. 3.2 need for development and support for individual with specific need Specific development methods need to be applied for the individual with specific needs, more specifically showing different characteristics. Other than the social needs, the health and wellbeing need to be checked on a regular basis because at the end of the day, if he does not have the functioning body he won’t be able to do anything else. For this purpose, the health needs have to identified thoroughly and plan the acts based on that. There could be a number of activities which the person has to undergo and for convenience, these should be turned into a ritual format so that it becomes easier. Apart from these, health improvement needs to be monitored on a regular basis. Other than this it will not be possible to track the whether the approach is right or wrong. There should scope for adaptions and improvisations to make the process much better and updated. 4.1 Strategies for coping up with challenges, potential impact of challenges and strategies to cope up While working in health and social care there are a number of scenarios posing specific challenges. Below are two of them- With the increasing access to information, people are right now more knowledgeable in various subjects, even it could be to small extent but with the blessing of technology information is on the fingertips. But analyzing this information is totally different issue. In most cases being a part of health and social care I have seen that, the parents or relatives of the person taking services are intruding into the operational procedure without having sufficient knowledge on the subject. It is very much possible that it happens because of their extra cautiousness towards the wellbeing of their closed ones. Since we have deal with concern usually on a long term basis it becomes very difficult to experience this kind of intrusion. Another challenge is to tailor the service with the given agenda and financial constrain. In many cases, it becomes very difficult to meet specific need by tailoring it as per the agenda given. This is mainly because of the continuously changing demand and increa sing public expectation. Since there are multiple entities involved in this procedure, it is very difficult to accommodate minor changes if that are done on a continuous basis. The potential impact of the challenging behavior on the health and social acre is that the health and social care givers have to be pretty much through regarding their understanding of the all the necessities and act accordingly. Starting from the planning, collaboration and execution phase they have to be very much cautious and the same time flexible regarding the plan. All the works need to be functionally assessed all the time and regular evaluation has become mandatory for the efficacy of the work. The core strategy to keep up with challenge is support from all the entities, be it the party taking the service or the one giving this. While dealing with the challenges clear target need to be set regarding the timeline, deliverables and all other specific activities. For working the with the challenging behaviors regarding specific needs it is very important to clearly communicate with the involved member, share the course of actions along with other specifications clearly. The rewards and sanctions will be set in such a way that it best suits and eases the operational procedure.

Jubilee Year :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The book of Leviticus is filled with different rules and teachings. They were written down by priests. They were known as the Holiness Code. One of the most prominent teachings in this section of Leviticus was about the jubilee year. Every fifty years, debts should be forgiven, and people who have lost their property have an opportunity to get it back. I wish we had a jubilee year in our time because it would allow people who have been struggling with their life to regain their footing and start over.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In modern times, most people are very greedy and materialistic. Perhaps that is one reason why, in ancient times, debts were forgiven every fifty years. People who had borrowed money from others but were too poor to pay them back normally lived a harder life. If debts were forgiven every fifty years, if they were still alive, it would give them a chance to try and live a normal life again. Nowadays, people would not stand for such a principle. Richer people would not agree to it because they would be losing money they had lent to other people. People who had borrowed money, however, would like it because they would not have to work to pay them back.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When people lose land, it is normally because they owe money, and whoever they owe money to is taking the land as a payment. Again, if people had a chance to regain their land after having it seized, their life would return back to normal and they could try and restart their lives also. As with the forgiving of debts, I do not think this would be followed in modern day and age. Land is very expensive nowadays, so having to give back a piece of land would make many people angry.

The Return: Shadow Souls Chapter 21

Pandemonium. Elena whipped her head up, confused as to whether she was supposed to be the repentant slave any longer. The community leaders were all babbling at one another, pointing fingers, throwing up their hands. Damon had physically restrained the Godfather, who seemed to regard his part in the ceremony as concluded. The crowd was hooting and cheering. It looked as if there would be another fight; this time between Damon and the Godfather's men, especially the one called Clewd. Elena's head was whirling. She could catch only disjointed phrases. † – only six strokes and promised me that I could administer – † Damon was shouting. † – really think that these little flunkies tell the truth?† someone else – probably Clewd – was shouting back. But isn't that exactly what the Godfather was, too? Just a bigger, more frightening, and, undoubtedly, more efficient flunky who reported to someone higher up, and didn't cloud his mind with dope-smoke? Elena thought; and then ducked her head hastily as the fat man glanced toward her. She could hear Damon again, this time clearly above the hubbub. He was standing by the Godfather. â€Å"I had believed that even here there was some honor once a bargain was struck.† His voice made it obvious that he no longer thought negotiations were possible and that he was about to go on the attack. Elena tensed, horrified. She had never heard such open menace in his speaking voice. â€Å"Wait.† It was in the Godfather's lackadaisical tones, but it caused an instant of silence in the babble. The fat man, having removed Damon's hand from his arm, turned his head back toward Elena. â€Å"I will waive, for my part, the participation of my nephew Clewd. Diarmund, or whoever you were, you are free to punish your own slave with your own tools.† Suddenly, surprisingly, the old man was brushing bits of gold out of his beard and speaking directly to Elena. His eyes were ancient, tired, and surprisingly discerning. â€Å"Clewd is a master at whipping, you know. He has his own little invention. He calls it the cat's whiskers and one blow can flay the skin from neck to hip. Most men die from ten lashes. But I'm afraid he'll be disappointed today.† Then exposing surprisingly white and even teeth, the Godfather smiled. He extended to her the bowl of golden sweetmeats he'd been eating. â€Å"You might as well taste one before your Discipline. Go on.† Afraid to try one, afraid not to, Elena took one of the irregular pieces and popped it in her mouth. Her teeth crunched pleasantly. A walnut half! That's what the mysterious sweets were. A delicious half walnut dipped in some kind of sweet lemon syrup, with bits of hot pepper or something like that clinging to it, all gilded with that edible gold stuff. Ambrosia! The Godfather was saying to Damon, â€Å"Do your own ‘discipline,' boy. But don't neglect to teach the girl how to cover her thoughts. She has too much wit to be wasted here in a slum-brothel. But then why do I not think she wishes to become a famous courtesan at all?† Before Damon could answer or Elena look up from her genuflection, he was gone, carried by palanquin bearers to the only horse-drawn carriage Elena had seen in the slums. By now the arguing, gesticulating civic leaders, egged on by Young Drohzne, had come to a sullen agreement. â€Å"Ten lashes, and she need not strip, and you may give them,† they said. â€Å"But our final word is ten. The man who negotiated with you has no more power to argue.† Almost casually, one lifted by a tuft of hair a bodiless head. Absurdly, it was crowned with dusty leaves in anticipation of the banquet after the ceremony. Damon's eyes flared with true rage that set objects around him vibrating. Elena could feel his Power like a panther rearing back against a leash. She felt as if she were speaking against a hurricane which cast every word back into her throat. â€Å"I agree to it.† â€Å"What?† â€Å"It's over, Da – Master Damon. No more yelling. I agree.† Now, as she prostrated herself on the carpets before Drohzne, there was a sudden keening of women and children and a fusillade of pellets aimed – sometimes badly – at the smirking slave owner. The train of her dress was spread behind her like a bride's, the pearl overskirt making the underskirt a shimmering burgundy in the eternal red light. Her hair had fallen free of its high knot, making a cloud around her shoulders that Damon had to part with his hands. He was shaking. From fury. Elena didn't dare look at him, knowing that their minds would rush together. She was the one who remembered to say her formal speech before him and Young Drohzne so this entire farce would not have to be reenacted. Say it with feeling, her drama teacher, Ms. Courtland, had always excoriated the class. If there was no feeling in you there could be none in the audience. â€Å"Master!† Elena shouted in a voice that was loud enough to be heard above the women's lamentations. â€Å"Master, I am but a slave, not fit to address you. But I have trespassed and I accept my punishment eagerly – yea, eagerly, if it will restore to you but one hairsbreadth of the respectability you enjoyed before my unwonted evildoing. I beg you to punish this disgraced slave who lies like discarded offal in your gracious path.† The speech, which she had shouted in the unvarying glassy tones of someone who had been taught each word by rote, hadn't actually needed to be more than four words, â€Å"Master, I beg forgiveness.† But no one seemed to have recognized the irony that Meredith had put into it, or to find it amusing. The Godfather had accepted it; Young Drohzne had already heard it once, and now it was Damon's turn. But Young Drohzne wasn't finished yet. Smirking at Elena, he said, â€Å"Here's where you find out, Missy. But I want to see that ash rod before you use it!† – stumbling to Damon. A few practice swishes and blows to the cushions surrounding them (which filled the air with ruby-colored dust) satisfied him that the rod was all that even he could want. Mouth visibly watering, he settled on the gold couch, taking in Elena from head to toe. And finally the time had come. Damon couldn't put it off any longer. Slowly, as if every step was part of a play that he hadn't rehearsed properly, he sidled alongside Elena to get an angle. Finally, as the gathered crowd became restless, and the women showed signs of losing themselves in drink, rather than in keening, he picked his spot. â€Å"I ask forgiveness, my master,† Elena said in her no-expression voice. If left to himself, she thought, he wouldn't even have remembered the necessities. Now, indeed, was the time. Elena knew what Damon had promised her. She also knew that a lot of promises had been broken that day. For one thing, ten was almost twice six. She wasn't looking forward to this. But when the first blow came, she knew that Damon wasn't one of the promise-breakers. She felt a dull thud, and a numbness, and then, curiously, a wetness which had her glancing up through the latticework of boards above them for clouds. It was disconcerting to realize that the wetness was her own blood, spilled without pain, running down her side. â€Å"Make her count them,† Young Drohzne slurred in a snarl, and Elena said â€Å"One† automatically, before Damon could put up a fight. Elena went on counting in the same clear, unaffected voice. In her mind she wasn't here, in this foul-smelling horrible gutter at all. She was lying with her elbows propped up to support her face, and looking down into Stefan's eyes – those spring-green eyes that would never be old, no matter how many centuries he accumulated. She was dreamily counting for him, and ten would be their signal to jump up and begin the race. It was raining gently, but Stefan was giving her a handicap, and soon, soon she would scramble off him and run away through lush green grass. She would make this a fair race and really put her muscle into it, but Stefan, of course, would catch her. Then they would go down on the grass together, laughing and laughing as if they were having hysterics. As for the vague, far-off sounds of wolflike leers and drunken snarls, even they were gradually changing. It all had to do with some silly dream about Damon and an ash rod. In the dream, Damon was swinging hard enough to satisfy the most exacting of onlookers, and the blows, which Elena could hear in the increasing silence, sounded more than hard enough, and made her feel a bit nauseated when she reflected that they were the sound of her own skin splitting, but she felt no more than dull cuffs up and down her back. And Stefan was drawing up her hand to kiss! â€Å"I'll always be yours,† Stefan said. â€Å"We belong together every time you dream.† I'll always be yours, Elena told him silently, knowing he would get the message. I may not be able to dream of you all the time, but I am always with you. Always, my angel. I'm waiting for you, Stefan said. Elena heard her own voice say â€Å"Ten,† and Stefan kissed her hand again and was gone. Blinking, bewildered, and confused by the sudden inrush of noises, she sat cautiously up, looking around. Young Drohzne was hunched into himself, blind with fury, disappointment, and more liquor than even he could stand up under. The wailing women had long ago gone silent, awed. The children were the only ones who still made any noise, climbing up and down on the boards, whispering to one another and running if Elena should happen to glance their way. And then, with an entire lack of ceremony, it was over. When Elena first stood up the world made a complete double circle around her and her legs folded. Damon caught her, and called to the few young men still conscious and inclined to look at him, â€Å"Give me a cape.† It wasn't a request, and the best-dressed of the men, who seemed to have been slumming, tossed him a heavy cape, black, lined with greenish blue, and said, â€Å"Keep it. The performance – marvelous. Is it a hypnotist's act?† â€Å"No performance,† Damon snarled, in a voice that stopped the other slummers in the act of holding out business cards. â€Å"Take them,† Elena whispered. Damon snatched up the cards in one hand, ungraciously. But Elena forced herself to toss the hair off her face and smile slowly, heavy-lidded, at the young men. They smiled somewhat timidly back. â€Å"When you – ah – perform again†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"You'll hear,† Elena called to them. Damon was already carrying her back to Dr. Meggar, surrounded by the inevitable entourage of children plucking at their cloaks. It was only then that it occurred to Elena to wonder why Damon had asked for a cloak from some strangers, when he, in fact, was already wearing one. â€Å"They will be having ceremonies somewhere, now that there are this many of them,† Mrs. Flowers said in genteel distress as she and Matt sat and sipped herbal tea in the boardinghouse parlour. It was dinnertime, but still quite light outside. â€Å"Ceremonies to do what?† Matt asked. He had never made it to his parents' house since he'd left Damon and Elena more than a week ago to come back to Fell's Church. He'd stopped by Meredith's house, which was on the edge of town, and she'd convinced him to come by Mrs. Flowers's first. After the conversation the three of them had had with Bonnie, Matt had decided it was best to be â€Å"invisible.† His family would be safer if no one knew that he was still in Fell's Church. He would live at the boardinghouse, but none of the children who were making all the trouble would realize that. Then, with Bonnie and Meredith safely gone to meet Damon and Elena, Matt could be a sort of secret operative. Now he almost wished he'd gone with the girls. Trying to be a secret operative in a place where all the enemies seemed to be able to hear and see better than you could, as well as to move much faster, hadn't turned out to be nearly as helpful as it had sounded. He spent reading most of the time the Internet blogs that Meredith had marked, looking for clues that might do them some good. But he hadn't read of the need for any kind of ceremonies. He turned to Mrs. Flowers as she thoughtfully sipped her tea. â€Å"Ceremonies for what?† he repeated. With her soft white hair and her gentle face and vague, amiable blue eyes, Mrs. Flowers looked like the most harmless little old lady in the world. She wasn't. A witch by birth, and a gardener by vocation, she knew as much about black magic herbal toxins as about white magic healing poultices. â€Å"Oh, doing generally unpleasant things,† she replied sadly, staring into the tea leaves in her cup. â€Å"They're partly like pep rallies, you know, to get everyone all worked up. They probably also do some small black magic there. Some of it is by way of blackmail and brainwashing – they can tell any new converts that they are guilty now by reason of attending the meetings. They might as well give in and become fully initiated†¦that sort of thing. Very unpleasant.† â€Å"But what kind of unpleasant?† Matt persisted. â€Å"I really don't know, dear. I never went to one of them.† Matt considered. It was almost 7:00, which was curfew for children under eighteen. Eighteen seemed to be the oldest that a child could be and become possessed. Of course, it wasn't an official curfew. The sheriff's department seemed to have no idea of how to deal with the curious disease that was working its way through the young girls of Fell's Church. Scare them straight? It was the police that were frightened. One young sheriff had come tearing out of the Ryan house to be sick after seeing how Karen Ryan had bitten off the heads of her pet mice and what she had done with the rest of them. Lock them away? The parents wouldn't hear of it, no matter how bad their child's behavior was, how obvious it was that their kid needed help. Children who were towed off to the next town for an appointment with a psychiatrist sat demurely and spoke calmly and logically†¦for the entire fifty minutes of their appointment. Then, on their way back they took revenge, repeating everything their parents said in perfect mimicry, making startlingly real-sounding animal noises, holding conversations with themselves in Asian-sounding languages, or even resorting to the clich but still chilling backward-talking routine. Neither ordinary discipline nor ordinary medical science seemed to have an answer to the childrens' problem. But what frightened parents the most was when their sons and daughters would disappear. Early on, it was assumed that the children went to the cemetery, but when adults tried to follow them to one of their secret meetings, they found the cemetery empty – even down to Honoria Fell's secret crypt. The children seemed to have simply†¦vanished. Matt thought he knew the answer to this conundrum. That thicket of the Old Wood still standing near the cemetery. Either Elena's powers of purification had not reached this far, or the place was so malevolent that it had been able to resist her cleansing. And, as Matt knew well, the Old Woods were completely under the domination of the kitsune by now. You could take two steps into the thicket and spend the rest of your life trying to get out. â€Å"But maybe I'm young enough to follow them in,† he said now to Mrs. Flowers. â€Å"I know Tom Pierler goes with them and he's my age. And then so were the ones who started it: Caroline gave it to Jim Bryce, who gave it to Isobel Saitou.† Mrs. Flowers looked abstracted. â€Å"We should ask Isobel's grandmother for more of those Shinto wards against evil she blessed,† she said. â€Å"Do you think you could do that sometime, Matt? Soon we'll have to ready ourselves for a barricade, I'm afraid.† â€Å"Is that what the tea leaves say?† â€Å"Yes, dear, and they agree with what my poor old head says, too. You might want to pass the word on to Dr. Alpert as well so she can get her daughter and grandchildren out of town before it's too late.† â€Å"I'll give her the message, but I think it's going to be pretty hard tearing Tyrone away from Deborah Koll. He's really stuck on her – hey, maybe Dr. Alpert can get the Kolls to leave, too.† â€Å"Maybe she can. That would mean a few less children to worry about,† Mrs. Flowers said, taking Matt's cup to peer into it. â€Å"I'll do it.† It was weird, Matt thought. He had three allies now in Fell's Church and they were all women over sixty. One was Mrs. Flowers, still vigorous enough to be up every morning taking a walk and doing her gardening; one was Obaasan – confined to bed, tiny and doll-like, with her black hair held up in a bun – who was always ready with advice from the years she had spent as a shrine maiden; and the last was Dr. Alpert, Fell's Church's local doctor, who had iron gray hair, burnished dark brown skin, and an absolutely pragmatic attitude about everything, including magic. Unlike the police, she refused to deny what was happening in front of her, and did her best to help alleviate the fears of the children as well as to advise the terrified parents. A witch, a priestess, and a doctor. Matt figured that he had all his bases covered, especially since he also knew Caroline, the original patient in this case – whether it was possession by foxes or wolves or both, plus something else. â€Å"I'll go to the meeting tonight,† he said firmly. â€Å"The kids have been whispering and contacting each other all day. I'll hide in the afternoon someplace where I can see them going into the thicket. Then I'll follow – as long as Caroline or – God help us, Shinichi or Misao – isn't with them.† Mrs. Flowers poured him another cup of tea. â€Å"I'm very worried about you, Matt, dear. It seems to me to be a day of bad omens. Not the sort of day to take chances.† â€Å"Does your mom have anything to say about it?† Matt asked, genuinely interested. Mrs. Flowers's mother had died sometime around the beginning of the 1900s, but that hadn't stopped her from communicating with her daughter. â€Å"Well, that's just the thing. I haven't heard a word from her all day. I'll just try one more time.† Mrs. Flowers shut her eyes, and Matt could see her crepe-textured eyelids move around as she presumably looked for her mother or tried to go into a trance or something. Matt drank his tea and finally began to play a game on his mobile. At last Mrs. Flowers opened her eyes again and sighed. â€Å"Dear Mama (she always said it that way, with the accent on the second syllable) is being fractious today. I just can't get her to give me a clear answer. She does say that the meeting will be very noisy, and then very silent. And it's clear that she feels it will be very dangerous as well. I think I'd better go with you, my dear.† â€Å"No, no! If your mother thinks it's that dangerous I won't even try it,† Matt said. The girls would skin him alive if anything happened to Mrs. Flowers, he thought. Better to play it safe. Mrs. Flowers sat back in her chair, seeming relieved. â€Å"Well,† she said at last, â€Å"I suppose I'd better get to my weeding. I have mugwort to cut and dry, too. And blueberries should be ripe by now, as well. How time flies.† â€Å"Well, you're cooking for me and all,† Matt said. â€Å"I wish you'd let me pay you bed and board.† â€Å"I could never forgive myself! You are my guest, Matt. As well as my friend, I do so hope.† â€Å"Absolutely. Without you, I'd be lost. And I'll just take a walk around the edge of town. I need to burn off some energy. I wish – † He broke off suddenly. He'd started to say he wished he could shoot a few hoops with Jim Bryce. But Jim wouldn't be shooting hoops again – ever. Not with his mutilated hands. â€Å"I'll just go out and take a walk,† he said. â€Å"Yes,† said Mrs. Flowers. â€Å"Please, Matt dear, be careful. Remember to take a jacket or Windbreaker.† â€Å"Yes, ma'am.† It was early August, hot and humid enough to walk around in swimming briefs. But Matt had been raised to treat little old ladies in a certain way – even if they were witches and in most things sharp as the X-acto knife he slipped into his pocket as he left the boardinghouse. He went outside, then, by a side route, down to the cemetery. Now, if he just went over there, where the ground dipped down below the thicket, he'd have a good view of anyone going into the last remnant of the Old Wood while no one on the path below could see him from any angle. He hurried toward his chosen hide noiselessly, ducking behind tombstones, keeping alert for any change in birdsong, which would indicate that the children were coming. But the only birdsong was the raucous shriek of crows in the thicket and he saw no one at all – – until he slipped into his hideout. Then he found himself face-to-face with a drawn gun, and, behind that, the face of Sheriff Rich Mossberg. The first words out of the officer's mouth seemed to come entirely by rote, as if someone had pulled a string on a twentieth-century talking doll. â€Å"Matthew Jeffrey Honeycutt, I hereby arrest you for assault and battery upon Caroline Beula Forbes. You have the right to remain silent – â€Å" â€Å"And so do you,† Matt hissed. â€Å"But not for long! Hear those crows all taking off at once? The kids are coming to the Old Wood! And they're close!† Sheriff Mossberg was one of those people who never stop speaking until they are finished, so by this time he was saying: â€Å"Do you understand these rights?† â€Å"No, sir! Mi ne komprenas Dumbtalk!† A wrinkle appeared between the sheriff's eyebrows. â€Å"Is that Italian lingo you're trying on me?† â€Å"It's Esperanto – we don't have time! There they are – and, oh, God, Shinichi's with them!† The last sentence was spoken in the barest of whispers as Matt lowered his head, peeking through the tall weeds at the edge of the cemetery without stirring them. Yes, it was Shinichi, hand in hand with a little girl of maybe twelve. Matt recognized her vaguely: she lived up near Ridgemont. Now, what was her name? Betsy, Becca†¦? There was a faint anguished sound from Sheriff Mossberg. â€Å"My niece,† he breathed, surprising Matt that he could speak so softly. â€Å"That, in fact, is my niece, Rebecca!† â€Å"Okay, just stay still and hang on,† Matt whispered. There was a line of children following behind Shinichi just as if he were some sort of Satanic Pied Piper, with his red-tipped black hair shining and his golden eyes laughing in the late-afternoon sunlight. The children were giggling and singing, some of them in sweet nursery school voices, a remarkably twisted version of â€Å"Seven Little Rabbits.† Matt felt his mouth go dry. It was agony to watch them march into the forest thicket, like watching lambs riding up a ramp into an abattoir. He had to commend the sheriff for not trying to shoot Shinichi. That would really have caused all hell to break loose. But then, just as Matt's head was sagging in relief as the last of the children entered the thicket, he jerked it back up again. Sheriff Mossberg was preparing to get up. â€Å"No!† Matt grabbed his wrist. The sheriff pulled away. â€Å"I have to go in there! He's got my niece!† â€Å"He won't kill her. They don't kill the children. I don't know why, but they don't.† â€Å"You heard what sort of filth he was teaching them. He'll sing a different tune when he sees a semiautomatic Glock pistol aimed at his head.† â€Å"Listen,† Matt said, â€Å"you've got to arrest me, right? I demand that you arrest me. But don't go into that Wood!† â€Å"I don't see any proper Wood,† the sheriff said with disdain. â€Å"There's barely room in that stand of oak trees for all those kids to sit down. If you want to be of some use in your life, you can grab one or two of the little ones as they come running out.† â€Å"Running out?† â€Å"When they see me, they're going to scatter. Probably burst out in all directions, but some of 'em will take the path they used to go in. Now are you going to help or not?† â€Å"Not, sir,† Matt said slowly and firmly. â€Å"And – and, look – look, I'm begging you not to go in there! Believe me, I know what I'm talking about!† â€Å"I don't know what kind of dope you're on, kid, but in fact I don't have time to talk any more right now. And if you try to stop me again† – he swung the Glock to cover Matt – â€Å"I'll cite you for another account of trying to obstruct justice. Get it?† â€Å"Yeah, I get it,† Matt said, feeling tired. He slumped back into the hide as the officer, making surprisingly little noise, slipped out and made his way down to the thicket. Then Sheriff Rich Mossberg strode in between the trees and was lost to Matt's field of vision. Matt sat in the hide and sweated for an hour. He was having trouble staying awake when there was a disturbance in the thicket and Shinichi came out, leading the laughing, singing children. Sheriff Mossberg didn't come out with them.

The Modern Day Political Culture - 1508 Words

Examining the modern-day political culture of where our society is at and where it is heading is something that people have struggled with in past history. Take for example the Germans of the early to mid-twentieth century, it is here where the people cannot see the full context of what is happening in the world and how they were impacting it. Think of the Romans that were born at the beginning of the fifth century, they would have no idea that the mighty Roman Empire would cease to exist within one hundred years. This happens because we cannot predict the events of the near future. However, by taking a step back and unbiasedly analyzing what is happening in the here and now, we can get a better look at what our society is and where it†¦show more content†¦Many of the problems that Marx diagnosed in his time are still prevalent today in America. One of these broad problems is the gap between the bourgeoise and the proletariat. Though the economic climate of today’s Am erica and yesterday’s Russia are completely different, both share similarities. One of these is seeing the emergence of an elite, ruling class amongst the masses of everyday commoners. Marx sought to end the struggle of the common man by leveling the playing field amongst the entire population. This is needed because we see the elite class working together to keep themselves elevated above the common people. These interactions amongst the elitists occur across political platforms. For example, recently the Senate passed a resolution that gives telecommunication companies the right to sell your browsing history. In a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, it doesn’t make sense why such a bill would be passed. In what ways does this benefit the common good of the common man? This bill shows a great violation of Mill’s policy of utilitarianism. This bill was passed to benefit the senators, who received money from the telecommunication companie s, and to benefit these companies who will profit off of the public’s browsing histories. If we compare the fifty senators who received financial support and the telecommunication companies to everybody else who is having their browsing data neutralized, we can see howShow MoreRelatedThe Mongolian Empire1112 Words   |  5 PagesWhy: Showed the warrior emphasis in East Africa How: Political: Allowed mobilizing of young men for military use Social: Was a sort of Social System Cultrual: Was only applied to men, patriarchy 3. Chinggis Khan Who: Founder of the Mongol Empire What: He was a ruthless leader who conquered a lot of territory When: 1206-1227 Where: His empire spread from Asia to East Africa Why: Influenced the spread of the plague and increased trade. 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