Managing Financial Resources in Health and Social Care Essay

Managing Financial Resources in Health and Social Care - Essay Example The essay presents how various aspects of financial resources should be managed in health and social care. It is the responsibility of the management to ensurethat funding is available to meet the daily needs of the organization. In the cause of events, finance may be needed in order to invest in equipment stocks, pay employees, equipment and cater for sales made on credit. If not well taken care of, sources of finance may end up dry; this may make an institution to be in financial jeopardy. Financial control plays a critical role in helping the business meets its objectives.As a manager, my role is to ensure that all these are achieved. Financial shortfalls arise when an organization cannot pay its bills on time due to lack of cash. As a manager I have been oriented to be proactive about financial shortfalls while upholding an account for contingency all the time. Through review of BUPA’s cash flow for the last six months, the company is capable to determine the cash flow in terms of expenditure and income; this aids the company in reserving cash needed for purposes of expenditure for the subsequent six months. After realizing the company’s assets, the company has a well-planned schedule on how to pay its suppliers to avoid conflicts with respective suppliers. The company also encourages early payments from the customer by offering discounts on such payments; this increases the chances of early cash availability. Payment of suppliers on a scheduled basis helps the company to avoid shortfalls since suppliers get their due especially when the funds are available. Fraud is an obvious threat to organization’s resources and therefore must be a concern to all employers and employees within a specific jurisdiction (Petrucelli 2002). In the event of fraud, managers are expected to set good example by conforming fully to procedures and controls. As a manger, quick action is necessary to avoid any further loss bearing in mind that this is just an al legation and until the outcome of investigation is determined. Movement and preservation of evidence to a safe place or location is vital where practicable. Both internal auditor and director of finance are supposed to be notified. Prompt and vigorous investigation should be carried out; after that, report findings should be forwarded to both internal auditor and director of finance. If possible consult with the appropriate departments concerned or involved. Notification to security agents should be carried out by the manager following consultation with the executives of the BUPA at National Director Level. As some may put it, coming up with a budget may be easy, sticking to it is the hard part. A well planned budget has little no impact without willpower and close monitoring (Amey 1979). A system for recording expenses and producing reports should be in place. As a manger, insisting on regular monitoring reports is way of ensuring that whatever was projected in the budgets is follo wed to the latter. Through monitoring reports, it makes it easy to determine actual spending at a particular period of the month compared to what was projected in the budget. The level of expenditure should be documented and clear reports drawn from them; the concerned departments should be informed so as to get their input on the same. The audit committee should review the reports. After conclusion, there should be immediate action taken

Managing People ,Info & knowledge Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Managing People ,Info & knowledge - Assignment Example An example of this is the observation that Terry Cole makes that Veronica has a tendency to talk in ‘management terms’ when she does not know what she is talking about. Because she is not aware of what she does not know (as Terry puts it), Veronica risks being blind to alternatives and considering only her own opinion. She also generates conflict with other members of staff, as she is attempting to gain power for herself and her department through the proposed changes. She would like to see the HR department have a bigger role and be more integrated into the company; however, not everyone else agrees that this is desirable. Another person in the case study who exhibits expert power is Terry Cole. Terry is the head of information systems and acts as a liaison to external contractors as well as being responsible for the information and networking systems within the company. Like Veronica, he is very knowledgeable about his field of expertise. He has a tendency to confuse o ther managers by excessive use of technical language, and does not speak up about his own opinions. For example, he is concerned about the project that Veronica is proposing, as he does not believe that she knows the entire situation, and has not throughout about how her proposal will affect other systems within the company. He considers that Mike is too easily influenced into decisions; however, he is not prepared to confront Mike concerning this. Although both Terry and Veronica could be considered to have expert power, the differ in personality and in leadership styles. Veronica is more active than Terry in trying to gain power for herself, and she is also more confrontational in general.... The present study would focus on power as the ability that one individual or group of individuals has to affect control or change over a second individual or group of individuals. This control or change can come in the form of behaviour, attitudes, objectives, needs, opinions or values. Five general types of power are recognised, legitimate, expert, referent, coercive and reward. One issue that arises when any type of change is occurring is that the power of individuals comes into conflict. Each person aims to protect their position of power, and in many cases gain more. Because of this, the types of power that are exhibited in a corporation can have a substantial impact on leadership and the way that changes are implemented. A business has many different components that work together collectively to produce the products and services that the company offers. One aspect of the development of information systems is that each person views the problem from a different perspective. Becaus e of this, they see different approaches as being optimal. In order to understand, and then solve the problem, it must be examined from all potential perspectives. Selective attention is a psychological approach that considers why people pay attention to some factors and not others. There are many different factors that affect selective attention, some of which are external and others are internal. External factors are the stimulus and the context.

Personal Philosophy of Education Essay Example for Free

Personal Philosophy of Education Essay Education is an important part of growth of the individual. Education can mean a lot of things. One of the definitions of education is the experience of the individual learning and gaining knowledge while inside the structured educational system. Today, one of the strongest beliefs when it comes to education is that learning starts during the early childhood years of the individual. Because of that, education philosophies have strongly revolved around this particular idea. This in turn has created many different perspectives and ideas in learning and education. The three important aspects of this philosophy on education are hinged on the consideration of children, teaching and learning. Generally, the philosophy is about the belief that children should be exposed to learning with focus on two different areas as soon as they are in the age fit for school-based learning. This usually ranges from five to seven years old onwards, depending on the mental, emotional and psychological disposition of the individual. This philosophy of education puts important consideration to the differences among individual children. This means younger children already fit for structured learning is not discouraged from starting even at a younger age. Those who are not yet fully ready are not discouraged either but will be the target of additional stimulation to be at par with the capabilities of those who are in the same age bracket as the child is. This philosophy in education is inspired by the Montessori Method. The belief of this method is that the children all possess natural inner guides inside them. The structured academic learning experience only acts as a means to provide for material and additional assistance to the children as they learn by themselves through their instincts, something that the creator of the Montessori approach recognized through observation. Montessori developed a new philosophy of education based upon the intuitive observation of children (Lillard, 1988, p. 29). In using the Montessori approach to creating the philosophy of education, the approach and perspective towards learning is strongly influenced by the ideals of Montessori approach. Examples are the treatment in learning, its ideas about children and the role of school and education, etc. , using the Montessori results in the consideration and inclusion of the learning theories that this particular approach entails. In this paradigm of teaching style and educational philosophy, the teacher takes the role of the mature overseer. In realization of the ability of the children to naturally learn via their experiences in the environment, the teacher makes sure that children are placed in an environment free from obstacles that could hamper, hinder, impair or impact negatively their learning experience. This approach is more focused on preparing the environment wherein the children are, for most of the time, left to their own devices to learn via experiential processes, and, when necessary providing the necessary and sufficient intervention. The philosophy of education is focused on the belief that what the children need to learn (in communication, in mathematics, in logic development, in interpersonal skills, and in other academic and non-academic components of child education) can be found in the childs experiential learning in a controlled environment where the learning experience has the potential to reach its optimum growth and development. The philosophy of education in this particular condition puts importance in the instincts of the child, in the effort to encourage the children to develop their instincts and to not put a stupor on such natural capacity which is crucial and important for long term learning. Perspective on Children This philosophy of education sees children as individuals who are created with the natural ability for learning. However, because of their lack of experience as well as necessary knowledge to make themselves fully capable and full developed individuals, they need to undergo educational experience beginning at their young years. Children is viewed not as individuals who need to be spoon-fed with things that can improve their own knowledge and skill set. Rather, they are individuals who need to be guided especially in their learning stages so that they can develop as capable, competent, learned and mature individuals in the future. Children are not viewed as entities that are commanded to follow. Rather, they are individuals whose own self compass is sufficient for them to move in the direction they need and want to since they are created with the natural tendencies for learning and knowledge development. They are not robots with minds that are like computers programs that can be tweaked, altered and changed depending on the perspective and disposition of the educational institution. On the other hand, the main responsibility of the school and its teachers is to make sure that each of the autonomous and independent minds be able to grow and develop towards each individual’s own complex and unique entity. Children are individuals who are sufficiently equipped, physiologically, but nonetheless requires intervention if only for the sake of maximizing, harnessing and developing the potential that each child has. Perspective in Teaching The teacher or teaching component of this philosophy of education is about the role of teachers and the teaching process as a tool. It guides and provides necessary intervention sufficient enough to guide the children into learning and knowledge building but not excessive enough to dictate the educational experience and the learning process of the child. This is considering the fact that the child is depended upon to use his/her natural instincts for learning. Perspective in Learning The learning perspective of this philosophy in education revolves around the central idea that learning is something that is natural to an individual, something that he or she experiences even when the individual is at his or her very young age. In this philosophy of education, learning is something that should be experienced by the child by allowing the child to interact with his or her environment, the creation and set up of which is a result of the conscious effort of the teacher and the school. Learning is something that comes naturally. Learning results to knowledge and information set in an individual to which the school and the teacher has a strong influence on, especially in guaranteeing the absorption of information that the child needs to know during the learning process. Reference Lillard, P. P. (1988). Montessori: A Modern Approach. New York: Schocken Books.

Investigation on a variation of the Stroop test

Investigation on a variation of the Stroop test The role of automatic and controlled processing was examined in an experiment looking at the allocation of processing resources between the two. Previous research found that when a word is written in the same ink as the colour the word denotes, it takes longer to state the colour of these words than if the words are colour neutral i.e. not the name of a colour. In the present experiment the type of word used was manipulated, between colour associated and colour neutral words. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the completion times of the two conditions which provided further support for the idea that automatic processes can interfere with controlled ones. Introduction The cognitive process of attention is said by psychologists to be how an individual processes the information that they receive from their day to day environment and how it is selected to be stored. That is to say that not all information that we obtain from daily life is seen as important for storage, it is essentially a selection process in which the most relevant information is chosen to be retained. William James(1890) believed attention to be dependent upon an allocation of cognitive processing resources(James,(1890),p9). The idea that all actions implore the use of processing resources to some extent, and is reliant upon the amount of resources available to an individual is known as a controlled process. Up until more recent years it was believe that no demand was placed upon these resources when the processes were automatic i.e. occurring without conscious awareness. These automatic responses were thought to use up less processing resources due to the lack of conscious effort involved, thus leaving resources free to attend to other stimuli. Thus essentially attentional processing has to be divided between the two. This was termed the two-process theory by Shiffrin and Schneider((1977),p21). Researchers felt that this appeared to be a very useful concept as essentially it would leave more resources free but were interested to see at what cost. J.R. Stroop(1935) was one of these researchers(Stroop(1935),p21). He carried out an experiment into the relationship between automatic and controlled processes. This consisted of two conditions, in one participants were given a set of colour name words written in coloured ink but never matched to the colour ink they were written in. e.g. the word yellow written in blue ink. This is known as the Stroop condition. In the other the participants were given a set of neutral words e.g. the word rat all written in the same colour inks as in the previous condition. The participants were required to name the colour ink in which the words were written as fast as possible. It was found that participants could state the colour of the words in the neutral condition more rapidly than in the Stroop condition, leading Stroop to conclude that peopl e are inclined to read the colour the word is portraying rather than the one it is written in. This is said by Stroop to suggest that the automatic process of reading can hinder the controlled process of naming the ink. It also shows that automatic processes are not necessarily free as researchers once believe and can on fact be influenced by conscious strategies such as naming the colour in which the word is written. Many variations of the Stroop test have been carried out since the original to further test individuals attention and the allocation of resources in both controlled and automatic processing. One such variation is the reverse Stroop test.(Wikipedia) In this experiment there were still two conditions; one where the participant was given a list of colour words and had to point to a block of colour which matched the colour word stated. The second condition was the same as in the original Stroop test where the colour ink the word was written in had to be stated. It was found that it took on average 7 seconds longer to state the colours of the words aloud than it did to simply point to a block of colour that matched it. It was concluded that when the colour of the word stated differed from the colour ink it was written it the automatic process of reading the word again interferes with the controlled process of naming the ink colour. It was also discovered that this can be controlled but th at then a time delay is incurred. This idea that automatic processes do rely on resources just like controlled process, but that they occur without conscious awareness is still open to debate as despite the vast amounts of research done on this topic it still remains to be seen if the Stroop effect only occurs with colour words. The idea that it is not only colour words that cause an integration between automatic and controlled processes is explored in the present experiment, by testing a set of colour- related words against a set of non-colour related words rather than a collection of coloured words printed in either black ink or opposing colours. The hypothesis was that people take longer to state the colour ink in which 30 words are written when the words are colour- associated words rather than colour-neutral words. This is a one-tailed hypothesis. The null hypothesis is that there will be no difference in the time taken to state the words in each condition, and if there is it is due to chance. Methods Design The design of this experiment was within-participants as the same set of participants were used to acquire the data in both conditions. The independent variable was the colour associated words. This consisted of two conditions, a colour associated word condition (condition 1) and a non-colour associated condition (condition 2). In the colour associated condition (condition 1), participants were timed to see how long it took them to state the colour ink of 30 colour associated words when written in opposing colours. E.g. plum written in orange. In the second condition the same procedure was followed but with the participants stating the colour ink of non-colour associated words. E.g. plan written in blue. The dependant variable was the time taken to complete each task, measured with a stopwatch to the nearest second. Several things were done to try and control for any confounding variables. Firstly, all participants were given the same set of instructions in order to prevent them gain ing a different interpretation of what was being expected of them. Another thing that was done was to ensure that none of the participants could confer during the time in which the experiment was taking place, thus helping to prevent them from incurring demand characteristics. Participants also took the two conditions in different orders to help control for practice effects. Finally, all participants were shown the exact same copies of the stimuli which made it easier to ensure that this is not a reason for any differences that may have occurred. Participants Twenty five participants took part in this experiment. 16 of these were recruited by a researcher at the Open University and consisted of their friends and family. The other 9 were recruited through asking friends and family of the researcher. The age of the participants ranged from 17 to 69 and was made up of 12 males and 13 females. Materials A stopwatch accurate to the nearest second was used to time how long it took each participant to state the colour the words were written in. The visual stimuli presented in each condition consisted of 30 words placed into two columns on an A4 piece of paper. For condition 1 these consisted of 6 different words (blood,plum,carrot,sky,grass and lemon) written in 6 different colours (red,orange,blue,green,yellow,and purple). The word was never written in the correct colour i.e. sky would never be blue. In the second condition a different set of 6 words was used (plan,sty,ledge,grade,career and blame). These were written in the same 6 colours as the words in condition 1. In each condition each word was used 5 times and presented in a random order. A set of each stimuli is shown in the appendicies (appendix 1). A set of standardized instructions was also used to explain what was required of each participant (appendix 2). Finally each participant was required to complete a consent form bef ore carrying out the tasks (appendix 3). Procedures Each participant was asked if they would be willing to take part in a psychology experiment looking at cognitive processes, that would take about 5 minutes of their time. The ones who agreed to were given a consent form to fill in stating that they were willing to take part. They were then tested one at a time with their age and gender being recorded before being read the instructions as to how the experiment would work. i.e. that they would be shown a list of words and were required to state the colour the word was written in whilst being timed to state all 30 colours. They were also told that there would be two conditions and that the same procedure was required for each. (instructions appendix 2). Once all of this was understood and the participant had asked anything they wanted to they were given the words for condition 1. The stopwatch was started as they stated the first colour and stopped after they had stated the 30th. This time was recorded in the same table as used to recor d the participants age and gender earlier in the experiment.. The same was then repeated for condition 2 and the time recorded. The order in which the participants carried out the two conditions varied. Once all of this was completed the participant was given a debrief about the nature of the experiment and asked if they wanted to ask anything or needed anything. They were also made aware again of their right to withdraw at any point after the experiment should they decide they are uncomfortable with their data being use, and of the fact that their data would remain anonymous should they allow it to be used. Results The one-tailed research hypothesis was that people take longer to state the colour ink in which 30 words are written, when the words are colour- associated words rather than colour-neutral words. This was measured with a stopwatch accurate to the nearest second (appendix 4 raw data). Table 1-Paired -Samples T-test data Mean N Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Pair 1 Colour associated words 25.6190 21 4.95456 1.08117 Colour-neutral words 22.9048 21 3.94848 .86163 As can be seen from table 1 above, the mean response time for the two conditions was fairly different with the mean for the colour- associated words being 2.7 seconds slower than the speed for the colour-neutral words. This difference can further be seen from the error bar chart below(graph 1). Graph 1 shows that we can have 95% confidence that the population mean for condition 1 (the colour associated words) will lie within :- 1.08117 x 1.96 = 2.12 Therefore the lower bound is 25.62-2.12= 23.50 seconds Upper bound is 25.62+2.12=27.74 seconds Or 25.6 2Â ± 2.12 seconds Graph 1 also shows that we can have 95% confidence that the population mean for condition 2 (the colour neutral words) will lie within :- .86163 x 1.96 = 1.69 Therefore the lower bound is 22.9 1.69 = 21.21 seconds Upper bound is 22.9 + 1.69 = 24.59 seconds Or 22.9 Â ± 1.69seconds Therefore, although it appears from the experiment that when condition 2 is used the individuals can read the words more quickly, this cannot be confirmed with any confidence. It is possible that in reality that condition 1 could result in those being test reading the words than under condition 2. For example, if the real mean of the whole population is towards the upper bound for condition 2 and towards the lower bound for condition 1, the individuals will be able to complete the test more quickly under condition 1.if there was no overlap between the bounds for each condition it would have been possible to say with 95% confidence that one condition allowed the individuals to complete the test more quickly. A paired t-test was conducted on the data which showed that (t(30)=4.214;p=

Star Trek :: essays research papers

"Star Trek": A Chronicle Space... the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship "Enterprise." Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds... to seek out new life and new civilizations... to boldly go where no one has gone before... The above blurb has been used to introduce the television show Star Trek: The Next Generation. The show's run has elapsed that of it's predecessor, the original Star Trek. The original spawned six movies and endless conventions, and both have given way to action figures for children, national clubs, and other various paraphernalia. This is the chronicle to end all chronicles: the full analysis and timeline of one of the most popular television programs in contemporary American history. Americans are fascinated with the possibility of intelligent life somewhere else in the universe; this has been displayed in books and plays and movies too numerous to mention, not to mention the accounts of "everyday people" who say that they have encountered aliens and unidentified flying objects (UFOs). This fascination became so great that in the late 1970s, President Carter decided to launch an investigation within NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) to uncover the mystery of UFOs and intelligent life in the universe. Science fiction plays upon this obsession. The great science fiction writers have sent our imaginations into overload with scores of stories to tell. The two most popular futuristic science fiction stories, Star Trek and Star Wars, both have similar characteristics. Both involve many different species of life (our nearest equivalent would be "races"). The Ferengi, Vulcans, humans, Betazoids, Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, androids, and Bjorans are in the Star Trek series (which includes the original television series, the six movies, the NextGeneration television series, and the television series Deep Space Nine), while the Star Wars movie trilogy includes humans, Wookies, Jawas, Ewoks, droids, Tusken Raiders, and a host of various other strange and exotic looking lifeforms. Each species has its own heritage, customs, beliefs, and socioeconomic status. I am sure that each science fiction storyline has it's own unusual breed of lifeform, but this paper will examine only a particular science fiction storyline which has mushroomed into a cultural obsession. I choose not to focus on the works of Ray Bradbury and the like; I'm sure that they are superb writers. (A fantastic example is Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder," which is the probable predecessor to all of today's hype surrounding the film Jurassic Park and the children's character Barney the dinosaur.) However, I've never heard of a Ray Bradbury convention, or action figures based on characters he's created. Star Trek appeared in the right place at the right time.

Relationship of Self-Esteem to Objective Success: Is it a Cause or Cons

It has been stipulated that self-esteem is one of the most studied concepts in social psychology. In the now classic study Pygmalion in the Classroom by Rosenthal and Jacobsen, it highlights how teachers' unfounded beliefs about their students became objective realities of the students performance (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003, p. 2). Early studies like this one has ignited the pursuit to find ways to increase self-esteem and encourage instillment, or creation, of self-esteem to guarantee future success. Because it is so popularly studied, results of studies investigating variables associated with self-esteem often significantly vary. In our individualistic culture, having high-self esteem is a coveted state. Through multiple studies exploring this topic, perhaps a conclusion can be made about the relationship between self-esteem and success. Is self-esteem a predictor of success or a result of achieving the success? A previous study called "Predictors of situational disengagement in the academic setting," the authors Stephan, Caudroit, Boichà ©, and Sarrazin (2011) examined the predictors of discounting or devaluing negative feedback in a physical education class in France. By comparing the grades received in class (of which the participants were informed) and the reports of the students type of motivation, as well as their perceived competence in the subject (p.446). The researchers measured the level of disengagement and perceived competence following receiving the individual grades. They identified three different kinds of motivation is from the self-determination theory: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation, or absence of motivation (p.444). If an unsatisfactory grade was receiv... ...eral self-esteem to school achievement. Personality and Individual Differences, 45, 599-564. Ramsdal, G.H. (2008). Differential relations between two dimensions of self-esteem and the Big Five? Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 49, 333-338. Stephan, Y., Caudroit, J., Boichà ©, J., Sarrazin, P. (2011). Predictors of situational disengagement in the academic setting: The contribution of grades, perceived competence, and academic motivation. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 81, 441-455. Stumpp, T., Muck, P.M., Hà ¼lscheger, U.R., Judge, T.A., & Mair, G.W. (2010). Core self-evaulations in Germany:Validation of a German measure of its relationship with career success. Applied Psychoology: An International Review, 59, 674-700. Zhang, M., & Cross, S.E. (2011). Emotion is memories of success and failure: A cultural perspective. Emotion, 11, 866-880. Relationship of Self-Esteem to Objective Success: Is it a Cause or Cons It has been stipulated that self-esteem is one of the most studied concepts in social psychology. In the now classic study Pygmalion in the Classroom by Rosenthal and Jacobsen, it highlights how teachers' unfounded beliefs about their students became objective realities of the students performance (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003, p. 2). Early studies like this one has ignited the pursuit to find ways to increase self-esteem and encourage instillment, or creation, of self-esteem to guarantee future success. Because it is so popularly studied, results of studies investigating variables associated with self-esteem often significantly vary. In our individualistic culture, having high-self esteem is a coveted state. Through multiple studies exploring this topic, perhaps a conclusion can be made about the relationship between self-esteem and success. Is self-esteem a predictor of success or a result of achieving the success? A previous study called "Predictors of situational disengagement in the academic setting," the authors Stephan, Caudroit, Boichà ©, and Sarrazin (2011) examined the predictors of discounting or devaluing negative feedback in a physical education class in France. By comparing the grades received in class (of which the participants were informed) and the reports of the students type of motivation, as well as their perceived competence in the subject (p.446). The researchers measured the level of disengagement and perceived competence following receiving the individual grades. They identified three different kinds of motivation is from the self-determination theory: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation, or absence of motivation (p.444). If an unsatisfactory grade was receiv... ...eral self-esteem to school achievement. Personality and Individual Differences, 45, 599-564. Ramsdal, G.H. (2008). Differential relations between two dimensions of self-esteem and the Big Five? Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 49, 333-338. Stephan, Y., Caudroit, J., Boichà ©, J., Sarrazin, P. (2011). Predictors of situational disengagement in the academic setting: The contribution of grades, perceived competence, and academic motivation. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 81, 441-455. Stumpp, T., Muck, P.M., Hà ¼lscheger, U.R., Judge, T.A., & Mair, G.W. (2010). Core self-evaulations in Germany:Validation of a German measure of its relationship with career success. Applied Psychoology: An International Review, 59, 674-700. Zhang, M., & Cross, S.E. (2011). Emotion is memories of success and failure: A cultural perspective. Emotion, 11, 866-880.

Story for English Exam

Young killer The gunshot was still ringing in my ears as I ran to my bedroom. I shut the door and locked myself in; I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing, hitting the polished wooden floor like rain in a storm, more and more I howled. He didn’t deserve it even after everything he did. Darren was dead. Everyone thought Darren was great, he always was a charmer. Every morning he would wake up and bring me breakfast. â€Å"Alright love? † he would say with a wink. I just loved him, he had a great smile with perfect white teeth, and his caramel skin was to die for. Rich, handsome and smart, Darren was my rock my leaning post when times were hard. Everything was perfect, we were perfect, the perfect family, Darren me and the two kids- Danielle and Joshua. All seemed well to everyone, but Darren started to change, he had a problem, a drinking problem. Darren would come home drunk each night looking for a fight, glaring about, he was a lion about to devour his prey. â€Å"Where the hell is that Danielle? † he screamed one day. Danielle walked down the stairs in a timid way, she knew what was coming. Darren was mad because Danielle didn’t finish the washing up. He grabbed her hair and dragged her to the sink screaming the house down with abuse. He kicked her and hit her until he grew tired, I couldn’t bare to watch. Darren was a monster. He repeated his â€Å"game† day after day. I wanted to say something I wanted it all to stop, but I couldn’t I loved Darren far too much, I was scared he would leave me, but enough was enough especially for Danielle. I had only one option I had to run, with the kids. I packed our bags, hastily throwing clothes into suitcases, blue, red, yellow, t-shirts, jumpers flying across the room as I tried to pack as much as possible in that short space of time. I got to Danielle’s t-shirt drawer and started to clear it when†¦ Clunk! A black shiny hand gun, rattled as it hit the floor. I stared at it traumatised, the death tool staring back. Questions were whizzing through my mind, why did Danielle have this? What was it for? Where did she get it from? Danielle was a good girl who wouldn’t even hurt a fly I just couldn’t understand why something so sinister was in her possession. After at least an hour of thinking in shock I decided to stop packing this issue was far more important than running away. I took a pair of Danielle’s green skinny jeans and placed the gun inside I wrapped the rest of the jeans around the gun and popped it back in the corner of Danielle’s drawer, couldn’t take the gun because Darren would find it so I left it there for a couple of days hoping and wishing that I could forget what I saw. Months had passed and Darren was back to his lovely self, he was buying treats for the kids and he hadn’t touched a single alcoholic beverage for at least three months, I was so proud of him. Everything was back to normal and even Danielle seemed back to the happy girl we all knew and loved, she even shared the occasional smile with her dad. All of that was to good to be true, as soon as I started to believe that Darren was a changed man he disappeared for three days, I would go to my bed and shed some tears praying to God that he would return, I would lay there night after night staring into the empty space beside me I knew what I was feeling it had to be loneliness and it was turning my heart cold. I cried myself to sleep a picture of the family tucked under my pillow being my only source of happiness. The next day came in a flash and Darren stormed through the door his eyes red with rage, he pushed passed me before I could say a word and he ran for the kitchen. Nobody knew what was on his mind. Ten minutes later he returned, but with a kitchen knife in his hand me and Danielle trembled in fear. He looked at me with no love in his eyes and grabbed for Danielle I screamed â€Å"NO! † and blood was trickling down fingers as I made feeble attempts to grab the knife. He had Danielle in his grip the knife coming closer and closer to her chest, my best efforts weren’t enough, I jumped up once more and nearly had the knife when. BANG! A metal bullet flew through the air and Darren fell to the ground the bullet sticking deep in his heart.. Me and Danielle turned to see a small sized silhouette holding a gun. The person turned around it was Joshua with a pair of green skinny jeans hanging round his neck. The gunshot was still ringing in my ears as I ran to my bedroom. A fact filling my head, that my son had murdered his father but saved his sister at the same time.