The Quest For Health and Wellness
Posted by in Wellness on October 17, 2011
Today’s world has placed a whole new focus on health and wellness. This is in part due to the baby boom generation growing increasing older, and many entering the realm of senior citizen. It is also due in part to the many health disorders that are affecting more and more young people. Many of these disorders were seldom heard of just a few decades ago, but seem to be rapidly increasing as the years go on.
The terms health and wellness are very often used in conjunction with each other or sometimes one is interchanged for the other. However, the meanings are just a bit different. Health is defined as the physical state of being, and it depends on a variety of factors such as heredity, food choices, environmental factors, physical fitness, amount of rest, and thoughts and emotions. Wellness is the process of maintaining overall good health. This entails conscious efforts to determine the condition of ones health.
When using the terms health and wellness together, it simply means that one is pursuing overall good health. They are often used when an individual is looking to promote a better way of life. They have also become a slogan in the hands of many marketers who are a number of aspects of the human endeavor. On the other hand, some people have embraced the whole attitude of a healthy lifestyle as they try to increase their health and wellness, while many companies busily rake in huge profits.
As one might expect, vitamin and nutritional supplements suppliers, and food retailers can benefit from the increased demands for products they sell which are touted to increase health and wellness. Some companies will also see a decrease in sales due to ever increasing evidence that some of their products do more to harm health and wellness. Products like cigarettes are declining in sales in recent years because they have been implicated in lung, heart and other degenerating conditions.
Greater focus on health and wellness is also being seen because so many people are suffering from obesity. This in turn contributes to higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, cancer and an array of other health disorders.
When all of these factors are looked at together, it can be determined that health and wellness is a multidimensional issue since it concerns the totality of the human condition. When an individual makes the decision to do something about their overall condition, that typically involves efforts in the following areas. Read the rest of this entry »
Vehicle Fleet Tracking Duty Of Care Management
Posted by in Duty of care on October 17, 2011
The drive to push up productivity and cut running costs to the bone are at the forefront of concern for fleet owners who look to their control room managers to implement stringent procedures during uncertain economic times. Striving to complete ever tougher ‘ just in time’ delivery schedules means the key focus of attention is to tighten up workflow solutions and maintain strict monitoring of driving behaviour.
The likelihood is that increasing work pressure can often lead to creating the conditions for an incident, which could be both financially disastrous and result in a serious or fatal injury. According to industry research, at least a half of all company-owned fleet vehicles will be involved in an accident during a twelve month period, of which, three quarters are caused by the vehicle driver. Although most accidents involve driving into the back of the vehicle in front, other known types of vehicle incidents include colliding with a wall, the roof becoming stuck under a bridge or broken glass.
Preventing the risk of accident or injury to company employees through the implementation of a Duty of Care policy was introduced as a result of The Corporate Manslaughter Act and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, which came into force April 2008. A broad company strategy would now include making risk assessments, driver training, enforcing driving time limits and a vehicle tracking solution. Compliance and employer responsibility for managing risk with a mobile asset tracking system also becomes central to reducing fuel, maintenance and insurance costs.
Deploying a realtime vehicle tracking system enables vital decision-making based on constantly updating reports on traffic and weather conditions. Delivery instructions and timing schedules can all be subject to sudden changes, including any unforeseen incidents. Fleet controllers are able to improve working relationships with their vehicle drivers and field workers by helping make their daily operations run more smoothly and efficiently.
Vehicle fleet tracking also supplies a managed audit of occupational road risk, crucial to precisely evaluating any unexpected road incident. Telematics insurance has become an essential fleet industry instrument with the production of a key document record essential to reduce the risk of prosecution, support insurance claims and reduce annual premiums. Read the rest of this entry »
Concept of Welfare State
Posted by in Welfare on October 17, 2011
Recurrent economic instability, the insecurity of individuals, exploitation of the weak, gross inequalities, and sometimes the ruinous exploitation of natural resources had always been serious problems of pure capitalism.
As these factors create many crucial problems, ultimately the solutions and proposal were put forward by think thanks and policy makers. One of the key solutions is public private partnership in different economic spheres.
Government and private enterprises had learned to function together peacefully, the former being concerned with general guides, aggregative accomplishments, and goals, the, latter remaining more of less fully in charge of production and commerce. In effect, the ship of state had been given rudder.
These economic conjectures contribute in shaping a welfare state. In a welfare state, it is assumed that a democratically elected government, together with a business system dominated by private enterprises, can and should work in consonance, to achieve certain economic objectives.
Perhaps to a modern ear, the assumption sounds innocuous or even vaguely exhortary. Yet, particularly when appropriate emphasis is placed on the underlined words, it is laden with content that not so long ago had seemed revolutionary. Historically, it is but a short jump back to the early 1930′s. Up to the point in time, or for a century or two previously, a more or less “pure” capitalism, economic activity and economic decisions were the exclusive province of individuals. Government intervention of economic scene was practically unknown. In economic affairs generally, a public authorities confined themselves to protecting property or enforcing contracts. Read the rest of this entry »