Collaborative Service Research Articles

The creation of social value in the participatory design of housing services

The approach to housing that redefines the home as a service transcends the issue of housing as merely private, bringing it back to a trajectory of collective public interest. The paper reflects on initiatives, whose common element is the investment in intangible aspects for community involvement, activating processes and experiments for the development of collaborative spaces and services that extend the scope of intervention to the neighbourhood, generating mechanisms and dynamics of social impact. The processes and experiments described are examples of how, to make such actions feasible, the public sector synergises with the private sector through welfare models requiring innovative management skills that invest and work on the community with an integrated approach for social cohesion.

Prioritizing health, well-being, active ageing needs in Lithuania: insights from stakeholders

Abstract Background The rate of aging in Lithuania is faster than the EU average. The number of long-term health problems in older (65+yrs) people increases, posing changes in societal needs. The aim of our study was to identify the most important needs of older people in Lithuania. Methods Generic qualitative inquiry employed purposeful sampling of stakeholders in Lithuania: policymakers, administration, academia, civil society, health care, social service, public health, organizations of elderly. 43 experts, engaged in online focus groups, generated a list of needs for health, wellbeing, active ageing in elderly; they deliberated to prioritize top 5; scientific team condensed a list of 10 for voting to determine final 5 national needs. Research was done within project “Roadmap to improve the health and well-being of the ageing population in the Baltic Sea Region (AgeFLAG)”, 2020. Results Top needs identified were: shaping healthy lifestyle habits and motivation for change (72%) / age friendly environment and virtual assistive technologies (72%); person centred care (domiciliary care, residential care and nursing, social activities and etc. depending on the needs and wishes of the older person) (58%); increasing and maintaining physical capacity (56%); intersectoral collaboration and integration of social and health services (53%); establishment of positive public attitudes towards elderly people (50%). All stakeholders indicated that “Establishment of positive public attitudes towards elderly people” is the corner stone of all priorities for action to healthy ageing in Lithuania. Conclusions The main issue hindering active and healthy ageing in Lithuania - negative image of ageing in the society. Recommendations on the public health actions included promoting intergenerational conversation, reducing stigmas around ageing, strengthening social inclusion, generating age-friendly environments, and creating a safe space for self-realization and development. Key messages • The main issue hindering active and healthy ageing in Lithuania – negative image of ageing in the society. • The change in the population requires the transformation of health care and social care systems building age friendly environments in Lithuania.

Integrated care in the Baltic states over a 5-year period: progress, challenges and future directions

Abstract Person-centered, multidisciplinary care is key to addressing evolving complex health needs. In Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, this pursuit of integrated care has gained momentum as an innovative approach to allocate resources more efficiently and improve patient outcomes. This study investigates the progress of integrating care in the Baltic countries from 2019 to 2024. It details key learnings, particularly for small European countries with limited resources. The Health Systems and Policy Monitor Network of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies undertook a cross-country study to better understand the progress in care integration in the Baltics. The Network’s Baltic country experts completed a 21-item questionnaire on the adoption of integrated care reforms. Responses were analyzed to capture reform characteristics and commonalities, countries’ political environments and their conduciveness to the uptake of integrated care. Country-specific experiences with the implementation of integrated care were further explored via case studies of pilot programs over the five years. The pace of implementing integrating care reforms varied in each country. Existing regulatory barriers, workforce challenges and payment schemes have impeded integration efforts across health and social care. Despite these obstacles, the political commitment to new and innovative service delivery and collaboration for chronic care management underscores an important prerequisite toward achieving more integrated and person-centered healthcare. The three case studies illustrate the hurdles that come with shifting care settings and expanding roles for some workers. Findings stress the role for integrated care to address organisational challenges in the Baltics. This study highlights innovative approaches and long-running efforts to provide multidisciplinary care for complex-needs patients and the implications of their results for broader health system adoption. Key messages • Small countries like the Baltics face structural challenges in integrating care to improve outcomes and efficiency. • Investment and innovative care approaches are key to further advancements.

Long-term average throughput-utilization utility maximization in platform-aggregated manufacturing service collaboration

Enhancing capacity utilization of manufacturing resources is of utmost importance in tackling the current challenges of meeting customized and small-batch market demands. Given the research highlights on platform-based manufacturing service collaboration (MSC) offering high-quality service solutions, efficient service scheduling strategies are urgently needed to maximize overall utility amidst great computational complexity and unpredictable task arrivals. To address this issue, this paper proposes a novel distributed online task dispatch and service scheduling (DOTDSS) strategy in platform-aggregated MSC. What sets our method apart is its goal to optimize a long-term average utility performance with considering queuing dynamics of manufacturing services in multi-task processing, thereby maintaining sustainable platform operations. Firstly, we jointly consider task dispatch and service scheduling decisions into the formulation of a quality-of-service aware (QoS) stochastics optimization problem. The newly constructed logarithmic utility function effectively strikes a trade-off between the throughput and capacity utilization of manufacturing services with diverse capabilities. By incorporating the goal of reducing queue lengths, we then transform the optimization problem into a form with less computational complexity and guaranteed optimality using Lyapunov optimization. We further propose a DOTDSS strategy that relies solely on the current system state and queue information to generate scalable MSC solutions. It does not need to predict task arrival statistics in advance, and it exhibits great adaptability to uncertainties in task arrivals and service availabilities. Finally, numerical results based on simulation data and real workload traces demonstrate the effectiveness of our method. It also shows that the aggregation collaboration pattern among a group of candidates can achieve better performance than that by the optimal candidate alone.

Factors influencing vaccination up-take among nomadic population in four regions of Ghana: a qualitative study

BackgroundVaccination has contributed to the reduction in vaccine preventable diseases. Despite, improved global coverage, vaccination among nomadic populations is still low especially in Africa. This study explored factors influencing vaccination uptake among pastoralist nomads in Ghana.MethodsWe conducted key informant interviews (KII) in 11 districts across four regions of Ghana, using grounded theory qualitative research approach. One hundred and eighty-two KII were conducted among pastoralist nomads, community opinion leaders, community health volunteers, security services personnel, local government personnel and health workers. Guided by the WHO health systems building blocks, data was coded using Nvivo 12 and analysed thematically. Results were presented as narratives with excerpts to support the findings.ResultsCommunity leaders support vaccination among pastoralist nomads as part of their leadership and governance responsibilities. Language barrier between health workers and pastoralist nomads affects service delivery. Also, healthcare providers fear being attacked by pastoralist nomads hence are hesitant to visit their settlements for vaccination. With regards to health workforce, healthcare providers’ perceived use of derogatory words and discrimination against pastoralist nomads influence their vaccination uptake. On medical product, the lack of knowledge about diseases, severity and perceived negative effects about vaccines influence vaccination uptake. Inadequate funds and logistics at the district health directorates affects outreach to nomads during vaccinations. Leveraging existing partnership between the health services and community leaders, information centers, volunteers and butchers to send health information to pastoralist nomads influence vaccination uptake.ConclusionCommunity leaders support vaccination among pastoralist nomads. Nomadic pastoralist miss vaccination dues to language barrier, feel discriminated against, and lack information about diseases and vaccinations. Strengthening Ghana Health Service collaboration with leaders of pastoralist nomads could build trust, create awareness and overcome language barrier between healthcare providers and pastoralist nomads.

Understanding impact and factors that improve postvention service delivery: findings from a study of a community-based suicide bereavement support service in England

ABSTRACT This article reports on a two-year study of a community-based suicide postvention support service in the UK. Attention centres on the implementation of four integrated elements within the service model: multi-agency working with real-time suicide surveillance, persistent pro-active contact; volunteer-led support; continuous open-ended support. Our approach involved analysing utilisation data and qualitative techniques, including in-depth interviews with a diverse group of stakeholders. The study is the first of its kind to provide an in-depth examination of an innovative approach focusing on the integrated model and its constituent components. Our findings offer evidence-based examples of collaborative service efforts in implementing real-time interventions, with agencies working together to provide timely, co-ordinated, proactive responses and support with the potential to alleviate suffering and prevent loss of life. The value of volunteer-led support and open-ended access and associated challenges are emphasised. Findings hold promise for international impact with policy implications for services worldwide.

Research on Equity Policies in Public Education for Learning DisabilitiesTaking China, America and Britain as Examples

With the recovery and development of the global economy, the quality of life worldwide continues to improve, and the demand for public infrastructure such as medical care and education services is becoming more and more vigorous. Medical development and progress have made studying the brain and neurological fields more thorough, and learning disabilities have gradually entered the public eyesight. As a special group, people with learning disabilities are not widely accepted and recognized in the scope of public education. Thus, education must support the development of this virtue cycle through educational fairness policies, as it is a public resource. Based on the existing education policies on learning disabilities in China, the United States, and the United Kingdom, this paper analyzes these policies and puts forward education policy suggestions from four aspects: the education policy formulation system, the education collaborative service system, the education accountability evaluation system, and the education funding service system.Among China, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the first two are based on the improvement of basic policies, focusing on the construction of education collaborative services and education accountability evaluation systems, respectively. The latter focuses on the improvement of education policy.

A review of research on the development of low-orbit Internet constellations

In recent years, with the surge in Internet users, innovative companies such as SpaceX and OneWeb have planned to build low-orbit Internet constellations, triggering a global boom in the development of low-orbit satellite Internet constellations. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the development of low-orbit Internet constellations at home and abroad and the technical difficulties currently faced by low-orbit Internet constellations in their development. This paper first introduces three representative low-orbit Internet constellation plans abroad (Starlink, OneWeb, Lightspeed) and the latest development of domestic constellations. Then, based on the characteristics of low-orbit Internet constellations, the five major technical challenges faced by low-orbit Internet constellations are analyzed in detail: constellation relative motion evolution prediction, constellation autonomous navigation and orbit determination, constellation variable path planning, constellation self-organization collaborative control, constellation communication and network services. Finally, based on the current development trend of low-orbit Internet constellations, suggestions are given for the development of low-orbit Internet constellations in my country based on my country's national conditions.

Enhancing Federated Learning in Heterogeneous Internet of Vehicles: A Collaborative Training Approach

The current Internet of Vehicles (IoV) faces significant challenges related to resource heterogeneity, which adversely impacts the convergence speed and accuracy of federated learning models. Existing studies have not adequately addressed the problem of resource-constrained vehicles that slow down the federated learning process particularly under conditions of high mobility. To tackle this issue, we propose a model partition collaborative training mechanism that decomposes training tasks for resource-constrained vehicles while retaining the original data locally. By offloading complex computational tasks to nearby service vehicles, this approach effectively accelerates the slow training speed of resource-limited vehicles. Additionally, we introduce an optimal matching method for collaborative service vehicles. By analyzing common paths and time delays, we match service vehicles with similar routes and superior performance within mobile service vehicle clusters to provide effective collaborative training services. This method maximizes training efficiency and mitigates the negative effects of vehicle mobility on collaborative training. Simulation experiments demonstrate that compared to benchmark methods, our approach reduces the impact of mobility on collaboration, achieving large improvements in the training speed and the convergence time of federated learning.

Evaluation of a Novel Pharmacist-Nephrologist Collaborative Care Service for Patients on Hemodialysis in Singapore

Evaluation of a Novel Pharmacist-Nephrologist Collaborative Care Service for Patients on Hemodialysis in Singapore

Using Intervention Mapping to co-design a psychosocial service with youth experiencing mental illness

BackgroundDescriptions of service development processes in the youth mental health sector are lacking. Further, youth with lived experience of mental illness are rarely involved in service design. Intervention Mapping (IM) is a well-established framework for program development, implementation and evaluation, yet its applicability in the youth mental health sector is unknown. This paper describes the use of IM methodology to co-design and develop a psychosocial service to support youth aged 10-25 years experiencing mental illness in Tasmania, Australia. MethodsThe six steps of IM were followed: 1) needs assessment; 2) define program outcomes and objectives; 3) program design; 4) program production; 5) implementation planning; and 6) evaluation planning. ResultsKey outputs of each IM step are described. The service was successfully co-designed with young people at the centre of each step. The service includes wrap-around psychosocial support from lived-experience peer-support workers; outreach; and flexible frequency/intensity/duration to achieve young people’s psychosocial goals. ConclusionsThis is the first study to document the use of IM in co-designing a psychosocial service with youth experiencing mental illness. IM may provide a valuable roadmap for the youth mental health sector in supporting collaborative service design, implementation and evaluation planning, and systematic documentation of service development.

Negative collaboration risk analysis and control in manufacturing service collaboration based on complex network evolutionary game

In the era of the digital economy, manufacturing service collaboration (MSC) efficiently meets the demands of user personalization and customization through networked collaboration among service providers. However, negative collaboration behaviors triggered by opportunism within the network can lead to risk generation, risk propagation and potential dysfunction of the entire collaboration network. Traditional risk control strategies are often based on experience and lack predictive validation. To improve the efficiency of risk control strategy formulation and validate the effectiveness of risk control, the article proposes a negative collaboration risk control optimal strategy exploration method. This method can realize effective optimal decision-making for risk control and validation of effectiveness by combining the complex network evolutionary game and Q-learning. The experiment results show that this method is able to formulate situation-specific risk control strategies and keep negative collaboration providers below 10%, effectively controlling MSC collaboration risk.

Strengthening Community Service Collaboration Through Basic Life Support (BLS) Training

The community service project aims to enhance public knowledge and skills in providing immediate assistance during cardiac emergencies. Conducted in collaboration with the Indonesian Emergency and Disaster Nurses Association (HIPGABI) North Sumatra and the Regional Crisis Center Team North Sumatra, this program focuses on training participants in the fundamental techniques of Basic Life Support (BLS), including cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and the use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs). The training is specifically designed for the congregation of HKBP Resort Kwala Bekala Church. The involvement of HIPGABI North Sumatra and the Regional Crisis Center Team North Sumatra brings expertise and professionalism, ensuring that the training adheres to national standards and best practices in emergency response. The outcomes of this training are expected to strengthen community resilience and preparedness in dealing with health emergencies in Medan and the surrounding areas.

Developing Music Therapy in Maternity Care in Ireland: A Qualitative Study.

Music therapy can be a form of preventive or early intervention. It strengthens and utilizes women's own resources to build resilience, aids relaxation, reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression, promotes parent-infant attachment, and adapts to physical and psychological challenges during the perinatal period. The inclusion of music therapy in Irish maternity services has the potential to improve the quality of healthcare delivery provided to parents and infants. Recent studies demonstrate that the prospect of music therapy is welcomed by parents and perinatal healthcare professionals in Ireland, but such services are yet to be formally embedded in maternity care. Building on a cross-sectional survey, this qualitative study employed 6 semi-structured interviews with women and perinatal healthcare professionals in Ireland to understand their perspectives on developing music therapy in Irish maternity care services. Four themes were identified from the thematic analysis of these interviews: (1) music has multiple functions during the perinatal period; (2) music programs contribute to holistic perspectives and approachability in perinatal care; (3) music therapy provides specialist support; and (4) further development of music therapy services is challenging. The findings offer important insights and practical considerations on the key components of the music therapy programs and strategies in developing music therapy in Irish maternity settings. This information can directly inform music therapy researchers and practitioners in designing music therapy programs and developing relevant services in collaboration with maternity care professionals and policymakers.

Multi-objective joint optimization of task offloading based on MADRL in internet of things assisted by satellite networks

The Internet of Things (IoT) integrates a large number of heterogeneous terminals and systems, possessing ubiquitous sensing and computing capabilities. Satellite networks are the crucial supplement to terrestrial networks, particularly in remote areas where network infrastructures are sparingly distributed or unavailable. Combining edge computing with satellite networks provides on-orbit computing capabilities for IoT applications, reducing service delay and enhancing service quality. Due to the resource constraints of satellites, achieving collaborative services through task offloading among multiple satellites becomes essential. Both the privacy leakage risk arising from frequent data interactions and the load imbalance resulting from offloading preferences cannot be overlooked. The key challenge of task offloading is to safeguard the privacy of offloaded data and ensure the system’s load balance while minimizing the delay and energy consumption. In this paper, the task offloading problem is formulated as a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP), and a task offloading algorithm based on multi-objective joint optimization using multi-agent deep reinforcement learning in a distributed architecture is proposed. The simulation results validate the efficacy of our model and algorithm, demonstrating that our proposed algorithm achieves better performance in minimizing comprehensive offloading costs.

Caring for a Child with a Cleft Lip and/or Palate: A Narrative Review.

Raising a child with healthcare needs places additional demands on caregivers. In 2012, Nelson and colleagues authored a review of 57 papers pertaining to parents' experiences of caring for a child with cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P). Thanks in large part to this review, available literature on this topic has grown considerably. The aim of the present review was to update and critically appraise recent literature, with the wider goal of assessing progress in the field and setting recommendations for future work. All original, peer-reviewed articles pertaining to the psychological adjustment of parents of children with CL/P living in high-income countries (published May 2009 to May 2024) were examined. A total of 126 articles were included. Findings were narratively synthesised according to three salient themes: Emotional Impact; Social Experiences; and Care Delivery. Recent research has built on Nelson et al.'s recommendations, addressing some prior gaps in knowledge. Nonetheless, some areas remained largely unexplored and critical methodological limitations were still evident. Recommendations for clinical practice include: improved informational resources for parents and non-specialist health professionals, regular audit of services in collaboration with parents and families, routine psychological screening for known risk factors and integrated psychological support from diagnosis onward. Recommendations for future research include the design of multicentre, prospective, longitudinal studies with sufficient sample sizes and appropriate control/reference groups, inclusion of families from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, further examination of factors contributing to psychological growth, the development and evaluation of psychological interventions, and cross-condition learning.

Enhancing rural healthcare through internet-based remote collaborative outpatient services: A comprehensive evaluation in Changzhi, Shanxi Province.

The advancement of digital technology, particularly telemedicine, has become crucial in improving healthcare access in rural areas. By integrating cloud computing and mHealth technologies, Internet-based Collaborative Outpatient Clinics offer a promising solution to overcome the limitations of traditional healthcare delivery in underserved communities. A trial was conducted in 4 counties of Changzhi City in Shanxi Province, China. The system extended to 495 rural communities and served over 5000 rural residents. Deep learning algorithms were employed to analyze medical data patterns to increase the accuracy of diagnoses and the quality of personalized treatment recommendations. After the implementation of the system, there was a significant improvement in the satisfaction levels of rural residents regarding medical services; the accuracy of medical consultations increased by 30%, and the convenience of medical access improved by 50%. There was also a notable enhancement in overall health management. Satisfaction rates among healthcare professionals and rural inhabitants were over 90% and 85%, respectively, indicating that the system has had a significant positive impact on the quality of health-care services. The study confirms the feasibility of implementing telemedicine services in rural areas and offers evidence and an operational framework for promoting innovative healthcare models on a large scale.

Age- and gender-based social inequalities in palliative care for cancer patients: a systematic literature review.

Cancer is a major public health problem worldwide, given its magnitude and growing burden, in addition to the repercussions on health and quality of life. Palliative care can play an important role improving quality of life and it is cost-effective, but some population groups may not benefit from it or benefit less based on age and gender inequalities. The aim of this systematic review was to analyze the available evidence on age- and gender-based social inequalities in access to and use of palliative care in cancer patients. A systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines. An exhaustive literature research was performed in Pubmed, CINHAL and Embase until November 2022 and were not restricted by language or date of publication. Eligible studies were observational studies analyzing the access and use of palliative care in cancer patients. Fifty-three studies were included in the review. Forty-five analyzed age and 44 analyzed gender inequalities in relation to use of and access to palliative care. Our results show that older people receive poorer quality of care, worst symptom control and less preferences for palliative care. In relation to gender, women have a greater preference for the use of palliative care and generally have more access to basic and specialized palliative care services and palliative care facilities. This review reveals difficulties for older persons and men for access to key elements of palliative care and highlights the need to tackle access barriers for the most vulnerable population groups. Innovative collaborative services based around patient, family and wider community are needed to ensure optimal care.

A collaborative restoration strategy of resilient distribution system with the support of electric bus clusters

The widespread deployment of electric buses (EBs) offers substantial flexibility resources to support the service restoration and enhance the resilience of distribution system (DS). Therefore, this paper presents a comprehensive and collaborative service restoration strategy for resilient DS, considering the support of EBs. First, the restoration flexibility model for EBs is derived, which quantifies the restoration capability of EBs by dividing effective EB clusters. This model is integrated into the DS restoration process. Then, a two-step collaborative restoration method of DS is proposed with the aim of minimizing the load curtailment cost. The first step addresses the restoration planning problem to determine the dispatch decisions for EB clusters. Based on above planning solutions, the second step focuses on the real-time restoration problem of DS, obtaining optimal restoration results through coordinating EB clusters and other local resources. In this stage, the impact of natural disasters on the EB cluster dispatch in transportation system is considered, and a rolling optimization method is employed to deal with uncertainties from renewables, load, and EB cluster dispatch time. Finally, numerical simulations are conducted using the modified IEEE 33-bus distribution test system and a 29-node transportation system to verify the effectiveness of the proposed restoration method.

Why Can’t We All Just Get Along? Conflict and Collaboration in Urban Forest Management

AbstractUrban forest management is crucial for supporting human well-being, ecosystems, and society, particularly with expanding global urban population and multi-uses of these urban greenspaces. This literature review examines the conceptualization and factors that contribute to conflicts and/or collaborations in urban forest management, including, but not limited to, diverse actors’ uses, needs, and perceptions. Using PRISMA methods, we systematically reviewed 176 scholarly articles published between 2013 and 2021 and found that most articles were primarily from the United States, Australia, and Canada. Findings highlight the need for clearer definitions of collaboration, emphasizing communication, operational tasks, planning, and shared beliefs among actors. Positive collaborations involved multi-level engagement and inclusive decision-making. In most cases, multiple issues contributed to conflict, including a variety of stakeholders with differing viewpoints on a given situation. Conflicts are commonly complex situations that do not lend themselves to a one-size-fits-all solution and tend to be a unique manifestation of the people, places, and perspectives involved. Our review can inform practitioners about more inclusive practices and adaptive management of urban forests. We conclude by providing lessons learned and suggestions for future research on stakeholder involvement, public education, governance, policy, decision-making, and the role of biophysical and ecosystem services in urban forest collaboration and conflicts.