Professional Service Providers Research Articles

Parental Advocacy for Students with Special Needs: A Systematic Review Study

This systematic survey study explores parental advocacy for students with special needs. Challenges, barriers and advocacy strategies are examined to understand how parents advocate. The SCOPUS and Web of Science (WoS) databases are used to find advocacy-related articles over the past 10 years from 2010 to 2021. A total of 80 articles with 60 studies from SCOPUS and 20 studies from WoS were identified through the PRISMA flow chart process. Findings revealed inadequate information, negative perceptions, language and cultural differences, insufficient knowledge, the presence of stereotypes and discrimination as well as differences in socioeconomic levels as barriers to parental advocacy. Some of the strategies adopted to advocate for the special children are communication with the special schools, the sharing of knowledge and purposes and provision of professional services to support the schools. Collaboration between parents and the school is identified to be the main medium that ensures the educational needs and rights of the students with special needs are met. A more conducive and meaningful learning environment for these students requires the involvement of multiple parties.

Understanding the support experiences of families of children with autism and sensory processing difficulties: A qualitative study.

BackgroundSupport, such as information, advice and therapies, can play a vital role in the lives of families of autistic children. However, little is known about the support experiences of UK parents and carers.AimTo explore experiences of and access to support for families of children with autism and sensory processing difficulties, from the perspective of parents and carers.MethodsSemi‐structured, timeline‐assisted interviews were conducted with parents/carers of 30 children aged 5–11, exploring experiences of support. Framework analysis was used to identify themes in the interview data.ResultsSupport varied widely and was not accessed equitably. Specialist autism support, together with support from other parents and voluntary organizations, was perceived as more useful than statutory and nonspecialist provision. Unmet support needs included an ongoing point of contact for information and advice for parents, and access to direct therapy and specialist mental health provision for children.ConclusionsFindings emphasize the need for a clear pathway of support following autism diagnosis, autism‐specific training for professional service providers and specialist provision tailored to the needs of autistic children.Patient or Public ContributionAn advisory group of four parents of children with autism provided feedback on study procedures and materials, including participant information sheets and timeline completion instructions.

Short-term rental market crisis management during the COVID-19 pandemic: Stakeholders’ perspectives

Contingency plans and crisis management strategies have been implemented by the short-term rental industry to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper examines the strategies adopted by three key groups of stakeholders: short-term rental platforms (e.g. Airbnb, Booking.com), service providers (represented by property management companies and short-term rental associations) and policymakers/tourism experts. The professional service providers, in particular, constitute a significant share of the short-term rental industry, but have not received much scholarly attention. In this respect, our study fills this gap by bringing attention to unexplored segments of the short-term rental industry. By examining and comparing the responses from these key groups, the paper contributes to the ongoing research about the workings of the short-term rental industry and its responses to the COVID-19 crisis.

Acceleration of Dynamic Web Interface Generation Through Multilingual Voice Commands

Modern web solutions require skilled efforts from professionals. This is expensive to attain and does not suit the budget and necessity of everyday people. Businesses looking to develop a website, or professional website development service providers can greatly benefit from a new approach to web development. This new approach comes in the form of voiceassisted development which allows the user of a cloud-hosted service to speak in natural language and express their needs to the system. The system follows up to enquire about necessary information and generates the desired result. The user would be able to interact in a language that they can choose themselves. Combined with the ability to enable dynamic web pages, this work aims to bring a revolution in the web development industry.

Establishment of Disease Surveillance Systems in Rural Communities of Sierra Leone

Using the native intelligence of rural people to establish a surveillance system reduces morbidity, mortality, poverty, and zoonotic and neglected disease outbreaks among humans and animals. People in rural communities constantly interact with domestic and wildlife, placing them at high risk of exposure to diseases. Health personnel is unevenly distributed, with the majority in the capital cities, making rural communities lack professional health personnel and health care service providers. Poverty limited rural people’s access to health care facilities. Emerging disease outbreaks resulting from complicated environmental changes pose a fundamental challenge in low-income countries, impacting the foundation of human and animal health. People find it difficult to reach medical centers due to a lack of funds. The Animal Health Club engaged thirty (30) villages in a focus group discussion and in-depth interview. Animal Health Club used information obtained to develop a semistructured questionnaire (600) and observed the people during the talks. Community people identify nine sources of diseases, including humans, poultry, wildlife, pets, ruminants’ crops, water, toilets, and garbage dump. The people elected/selected an executive to organize and nominate people to surveillance the nine sources of diseases. Large villages were divided into zones, while smaller villages remain the same. The people identified ten domestic animals and twenty-four wildlife animals in their communities and some diseases associated with them. They also revealed a high level of interaction between domestic, wildlife, and humans in towns and bush in their respective communities. Rural people believed animals transfer diseases to humans in various ways. However, people contract diseases more from human-human interaction than human- animals interaction. The study’s main objective was to explore livestock and wildlife disease interface and transmission chains within the human population in the selected communities and establish community-level epidemiological surveillance systems to reduce disease incidence.

A starter's guide to learning and teaching how to coproduce healthcare services.

There has been insufficient attention paid to the role of learning in co-production-both how service users and professional service providers learn to co-produce effectively and how the lessons of co-production are captured at a service level. We aimed to develop and test a curriculum to support healthcare professionals' interest in learning how to co-produce health and healthcare services with patients. We developed a co-production curriculum that was tested iteratively in multiple in-person and virtual teaching sessions and short courses. We conducted a formative evaluation of the co-production curriculum and teaching tools to tailor the curriculum. Several theories underpin our approach to learning and teaching how to co-produce healthcare services. The co-production curriculum is grounded in systems theory and shares elements of educational theories, namely, the postmodern curriculum matrix, the actor network theory and situated learning in communities of practice. Learning participants valued the sense of community, the experiential learning environment, and the practical methods to support their exploration of co-production. This paper summarizes the educational theories that underpin our efforts to develop and implement the curriculum, reports on a formative assessment conducted with learners, and makes recommendations for creating an environment for learning how health professionals can co-produce health and healthcare with patients.

Repair, Consumption, and Sustainability: Fixing Fragile Objects and Maintaining Consumer Practices

AbstractRepair is an overlooked but important aspect of consumer behavior with implications for the social and environmental sustainability of consumption. This ethnographic study examines the interplay of repair and consumption by analyzing when and how consumers repair the objects they use. The analysis examines how conflicting and complementary practice elements can lead to object replacement and disposal or, alternatively, facilitate object repair and extended use. Results unfold how consumers calibrate their routine activities around the continually changing material capacities of objects. Consumers engage in repair as a response to worn or damaged objects that misalign from and often disrupt ongoing practices. Repairers, including consumers and professional service providers, attempt to adjust object capacities in ways that realign disrupted practices with the routinized ways that consumers do them. When successful, repair sustains consumer practices by avoiding prolonged disruption and unnecessary waste. However, conflicts between production, consumption, and repair can hinder the efficacy of repair interventions and shape whether and how consumers repair the objects they use. The article explains these challenges and concludes by discussing their implications for studies of repair, consumer practices, and sustainable consumption.

Integrating lived experience into clinical practice: a case study of young peer providers in pediatric rehabilitation

Purpose Youth Facilitators (YFs) are peer service providers (SPs) with childhood-onset disabilities working in pediatric rehabilitation teams. This study explored the YF role focusing on what work YFs do, the perceived facilitators and challenges pertinent to the role integration process, and the evolution of the role over the study period. Methods A longitudinal, qualitative case study approach was used to gather data over a total period of 14 months through interviews, focus groups, workload logs, and observations. Data were analyzed using the method of thematic analysis. Results Two YFs, 23 SPs and two managers participated in the study. YFs’ work included independent consultation, resource provision, referral making, and program co-facilitation. Analysis produced two contrasting themes. When viewed as a representative of clients, YFs were considered bringing client perspectives to care, adding credibility to clinical services, and empowering clients and families through role modeling. However, when viewed as a professional SP, their expertise was questioned due to role unclarity, limited generalizability of lived experience, and organizational limitations. Conclusions Training tailored to local care contexts and organizational supports are needed to transform YFs’ experiential knowledge into experiential expertise. We propose strategies for optimal integration of peer providers into clinical care teams. Implications for rehabilitation As peer service providers with lived experience of disabilities, Youth Facilitators (YFs) have the potential to benefit pediatric rehabilitation services by facilitating empowerment in clients and families as they navigate through life transitions. The YF scope of practice and training should be adapted to fit with individual clinical teams and local care contexts to help YFs establish their experiential expertise in interdisciplinary teams. Establishing YF’s core competencies (e.g., advocacy, coaching, and boundary setting skills) can help transform their experiential knowledge into experiential expertise.

Sustainable Ageing: Supporting Healthy Ageing and Independence Amongst Older Turkish Migrants in the UK

In the UK, as in many other European countries, the population is growing older, and older adults are becoming more diverse. As a result, there is a mounting interest in supporting healthy ageing and independence, acknowledging the needs and agency of older adults from diverse backgrounds, expectations, and life trajectories. Healthy ageing is promoted as a critical component of sustainable ageing to ensure meaningful social and economic contributions through the life course for all individuals. However, the definitions of healthy ageing are debatable. The public and policy discourse treat all older adults through generic and homogeneous models that do not consider the heterogeneity of experiences and perspectives of old age among different groups. In this context, independence has often been defined in terms of functional independence, i.e., cognitive and physical functioning, as a core construct of healthy ageing. However, this focus excludes older adults’ interpretations and day-to-day experiences of this concept. This article investigates the interpretation and lived experience of independence amongst older Turkish adults in the UK as a central explanatory concept of healthy ageing. Semi-structured individual interviews (n = 48) and community mapping workshops (n = 5) were conducted with 65 older Turkish adults in London, supplemented by interviews with professional service providers (n = 13) within the community. The data collection was conducted between March and November 2017. We identified three main themes integral to understanding healthy ageing and independence: 1—interdependency and having reciprocal care relations; 2—individual autonomy at home and choice in housing options; and 3—functional independence, mobility, and control over the physical environment. Independence appears to remain an essential element of healthy ageing. However, it is a fluid and complex construct constantly negotiated around personal and community resources. Therefore, there is a need to develop more comprehensive interventions that capture the diverse experiences in old age to enable healthy ageing and social sustainability. These are timely considering current policy directions such as the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Sustainability through the lens of the professional adviser: the case for brand trust

PurposeThis investigation builds on two domains. First, professional service providers, such as dentists and veterinarians, represent an understudied link in the distribution channel. Their recommendation of products, such as toothpaste and pet food, are impactful to their clientele. Second, for consumers, sustainability is growing as a motivating factor in product consideration. Consequently, brands committed to sustainability want to promote their products accordingly to connect with the consumer. The purpose of this study is to determine how to trust in sustainable brands is built in the mind of professional service providers, as they are influential in their clients’ decision process.Design/methodology/approachStructural equation modeling was used to test the conceptual model that predicted how brand trust of sustainable products is built in the mind of the professional service provider using a sample of 457 veterinarians.FindingsResults revealed that trust in sustainable brands is built via professionals’ expertise in sustainability and their perception of the importance of sustainability. Additionally, the perception of altruistic motivations had a positive impact on brand trust while the perception of strategic motivations had no influence on trust in sustainable brands.Originality/valuePrevious studies typically examine sustainability in an organizational context or as a brand consideration factor for consumers. This research focuses on professional service providers, who operate independently of the organization, alongside the formal distribution channel. The study examines how their perception of sustainability importance and their perceived motives of brands engaging in sustainability activities impacts their trust in sustainable brands.

Adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) and their perceptions of, and motivation for, physical activity and organised sports

ABSTRACT Individuals with intellectual disability (ID) are less physically active than individuals without ID, and rarely reach the recommended daily level of physical activity (PA). It is understood that both social interaction and the ability to perform physical work affect participation in daily activity as well as PA. Individuals with ID generally have a higher risk of hypertension and obesity-related cardiovascular diseases than individuals without ID. Professional service providers, teachers and parents are often those being asked about potential challenges related to PA, as it is more seldom that this knowledge comes from the target group (ID) themselves. This identifies a lack of knowledge about PA and sports for individuals with ID. The aim of this study was to identify perceptions of, and motivation for, PA and sports among adolescents with ID. Twelve Swedish male and female adolescents with ID participated in the study, which comprised one semi-structured interview. The interviews identified three main categories: Activity, Surroundings and Body- and health awareness. Adolescents with ID seemed intrinsic motivated to participate in PA, organised sports and activities in general. Support from significant others, teachers, family and friends and support as well as the feeling of joy are connected to normative beliefs which all seem crucial. The participants were aware of their limitations, but sometimes feel bullied and afraid of being excluded, which relates to their normative beliefs. Participation in PA and organised sports may be positively associated with health, but limitations such as lack of awareness and support from society challenge the perception of ‘fitting in’. This research has raised the voice of adolescents with ID and identified the need for increased knowledge of their perceptions for a more inclusive world. School PE is an arena where adolescents can still be reached regarding PA and thereby should be prioritised.

Psychological implications and rehabilitation programmes due to football‐related injuries

AbstractBackgroundThis research explored the experience of footballers who had experienced a sports‐related injury and sought psychological and/or counselling support. What interventions did athletes find helpful/not helpful for coping with such an experience?MethodDrawing upon the principles of phenomenology, hermeneutics, and ideography, interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to provide insight into the athletes’ experiences and their personal perceptions of the injury. Semi‐structured interviews with six Maltese top‐level football players who have sustained and overcome a sports‐related injury were used for the collection of data.FindingsThe athletes’ appraisals of their injury were explored, and their attitudes towards the different forms of support received and the psychological interventions used were identified. Despite the psychological support sought and received on a personal level, the participants suggested that their mental health was often overlooked by their clubs, leaving them with feelings of helplessness and insecurity.RecommendationsRecommendations, which can be adopted to create sports environments that promote athletes’ psychological well‐being, are presented. These include recruiting professional service providers such as counsellors and sport psychologists within clubs, as well as the promotion of such services to diminish the stigma around athletes’ mental health. Since sport psychologists usually focus on sports’ performance enhancement, it may be wise for clubs to create transdisciplinary teams, which include other health professionals, such as counsellors, for more in‐depth one‐to‐one counselling related to readiness to play. This suggests the implementation of holistic sport education programmes promoting mental well‐being. Recommendations for further research are also discussed.

A Profit Distribution Model of Reverse Logistics Based on Fuzzy DEA Efficiency—Modified Shapley Value

Reverse logistics is an important way to realize sustainable production and consumption. With the emergence of professional third-party reverse logistics service providers, the outsourcing model has become the main mode of reverse logistics. Whether the distribution of cooperative profit among multiple participants is fair or not determines the quality of the implementation of the outsourcing mode. The traditional Shapley value model is often used to distribute cooperative profit. Since its distribution basis is the marginal profit contribution of each member enterprise to different alliances, it is necessary to estimate the profit of each alliance. However, it is difficult to ensure the accuracy of this estimation, which makes the distribution lack of objectivity. Once the actual profit share deviates from the expectation of member enterprise, the sustainability of the reverse logistics alliance will be affected. This study considers the marginal efficiency contribution of each member enterprise to the alliance and applies it to replace the marginal profit contribution. As the input and output data of reverse logistics cannot be accurately separated from those of the whole enterprise, they are often uncertain. In this paper, we assume that each member enterprise’s input and output data are fuzzy numbers and construct an efficiency measurement model based on fuzzy DEA. Then, we define the characteristic function of alliance and propose a modified Shapley value model to fairly distribute cooperative profit. Finally, an example comprising of two manufacturing enterprises, one sales enterprise, and one third-party reverse logistics service provider is put forward to verify the model’s feasibility and effectiveness. This paper provides a reference for the profit distribution of the reverse logistics.

Prevention of partner violence: virtual case simulation for religious leaders of Korean American immigrant communities.

The project 'Religious Leaders for Healthy Families' aims to prevent intimate partner violence (IPV) and increase access to resources for immigrant victims by enhancing the capacity of religious leaders. Due to cultural and psychosocial barriers, immigrant women prefer to exhaust informal resources, including religious leaders, before seeking help from professional service providers. This study reports the development of a virtual case simulation in which Korean American (KA) religious leaders living in the USA practice how to prevent and address IPV in their congregation. Intervention mapping (IM) guided the development of the simulation. This process was informed by theory, research and expertise in prevention and virtual case simulation. We partnered with victim service organizations and received feedback from religious leaders. The simulation was pilot tested with nine KA religious leaders and three community leaders with IPV expertise in the KA community. The resulting intervention consists of 4 behavioral outcomes and 24 performance objectives. We identified the knowledge, attitudes, outcome expectations and self-efficacy needed to accomplish each objective. The most creative phase was the development of four modules, as interactive virtual case simulations, that address all performance objectives. IM and social cognitive theory provided a useful framework for developing this virtual case simulation. With culturally responsive modifications, the intervention has the potential to be adapted for religious leaders from other immigrant communities.

Advisors or Enablers? Bringing Professional Service Providers into the Guiding Principles’ Fold

AbstractAfter a decade, different businesses adhere to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). Some key commercial entities, however, remain largely outside of the UNGPs universe, including professional service providers (PSPs) who are retained by businesses to provide expert advice and services. These advisors include lawyers, management consultants, architects and others. Some may have specialized units that provide advice on the UNGPs when retained solely for that purpose. But when asked to provide general commercial legal advice, to design a building, or restructure a business, such advisors do not typically appear to apply the UNGPs, to identify negative human rights impacts and tailor their advice in a way that prevents or mitigates such impacts. This article explores the connection between the advice provided by PSPs and negative human rights impacts. It underscores the critical need for these advisors to align their business processes and advisory services with the UNGPs to avoid being enablers of human rights abuses.

Online Manuscript Editing Services for Multilingual Authors: A Content Analysis Study

ABSTRACT Online writing and editing services can help overcome obstacles faced by researchers seeking publication of their manuscripts. As professional services providers, they have business acumen, experience, and insight about the publishing industry. They supply their editing services for a fee and make additional services available to writers who seek to publish their work. Multilingual authors sometimes face challenges when publishing their research in English language journals. These challenges might have to do with the intricacies of technical writing; or how to find the best journal to submit their manuscript; or even how to explain their datasets in a more visual manner. Writing and editing services help multilingual authors with the creation of a publishable manuscript; give advice about the submission process; and provide other services to enhance the visibility of the published article via social media or other outlets. In this study, the author applied the content analysis method to identify online editing organizations (n = 16) that provide their services to authors. The author then divided these editing organizations into two main categories: seven are commercial publishers and nine are editing companies. It was found that Emerald Publishing Services, a commercial publisher, is the most prominent among the organizations that offer manuscript preparation services, followed by Elsevier, Hindawi, SpringerNature, and Taylor & Francis. As for the online editing companies, the study revealed that Enago has the most service offerings, followed by ManuscriptEdit, Editage, and Sirius Interactive. The study identified 15 distinct editing services offered by these organizations. The results show that the 16 online editing organizations offer four key services: language editing, manuscript formatting, figure preparation, and translation with language. The study recommends that multilingual authors consult editing services to improve the quality of their manuscripts before submitting them to journals.

Consucrats Have Agency: What Next for the Profecrat? Comment on "The Rise of the Consucrat".

The trend in ensuring adequate consumer representation across diverse activities and sectors, not least in healthcare, has been speedily implemented, sometimes at the expense of strategy. This commentary explores the concept of the consucrat as a consumer representative, presented by de Leeuw, which raised important questions regarding the way in which individuals and health services interact and collaborate. Adopting a complex services marketing lens, the position of the consucrat is discussed in relation to agency underpinning three tensions identified by de Leeuw: designation; professionalization, and; representation. For equality, professional service providers are referred to as ‘profecrats.’ Supporting de Leeuw, challenges are made to the underlying assumptions implicit in terms used around representation, the perspective that it is the consucrat only who needs to adapt, and the discourse around the competence of the consucrat. We should not be too cautious in our approach to consumer representation. Consucrats have agency – what next for the profecrat?

Analysis of Response Time and Quality of Professional Service Provider Care (PPA) with Patient Satisfaction in Hospital Poly Disease in Kartini Mojokerto

To create patient satisfaction, the hospital must create and manage a system to obtain more patients and the ability to retain patients. The process of patient care and care is dynamic and involves many Caregiver Professionals (PPA) and involves various service units. There are many problems regarding the lack of satisfaction from health care workers, one of which is due to the long response time. This study aims to analyze the relationship between response time and service quality of health workers with satisfaction of outpatients at Kartini Hospital, Mojokerto. This study used a quantitative analytic design with a cross sectional approach. The population was all unhospitalited patients who had received services the internal medicine poly at Kartini Hospital, Mojokerto with a total of 156 respondents. The sample used Simple Random Sampling totaling 112 respondents. Independent variables are response time and service quality. The dependent variable is outpatient satisfaction. Data analysis using Ordinal Regression. The time of the study was 18-23 March 2020. Based on the results of the Ordinal Regression Test analysis, it shows that the variable that most influences patient satisfaction is the variable service quality with a p-value of 0.013 <0.05, so H0 is rejected and H1 is accepted, so it can be concluded that there is a significant relationship between the quality of health care workers and satisfaction. On Outpatients at Kartini Hospital, Mojokerto Regency

The four spheres of value co-creation in humanitarian professional services

PurposeThe study focuses on the value co-creation processes in humanitarian professional services provision, analysing the key enabling factors of beneficiaries' participation, involved in long-term integration programmes (L-TIPs).Design/methodology/approachThrough an in-depth case study, the research looks at the practices of value co-creation in humanitarian professional services, considering both the perspectives of the professional service provider and beneficiary.FindingsIn professional services beneficiary's participation affects the success of the L-TIPs outcomes. Participation's enablers can be classified into four different spheres, each belonging to different elements of professional service: the beneficiary, the professionals, the service design and the external environment.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper contributes to the literature on humanitarian operations & supply chain management. By focussing on an understudied phase of the disaster life-cycle management, it contributes to the theory of value co-creation by exploring new issues and drivers of beneficiary's participation.Practical implicationsThis research has interesting implications for policymakers and humanitarian practitioners. First, guidelines for professionals' behaviours and interventions should be designed as well as new practices and strategies should be adopted. Second, governments should avoid concentrating L-TIPs in few big humanitarian centres.Originality/valueThe study focuses on an understudied stage of humanitarian operations, namely the L-TIPs, and uses this setting to build on the theory of value co-creation in professional services by identifying its enabling factors, clustered into four spheres, namely beneficiary, professional, service design and environmental.

High standards or a high standard of standardness?

This paper explores the difference between high standards and a high standard of standardness of professional service provision in teacher-librarianship. That is to say, it explores the difference between a demonstrated deep commitment to 21st century learning (high standards) and demonstrated compliance with a pre-determined checklist of skills and capacities (a high standard of standardness). A case is made for maintaining scepticism about all schema for defining ‘standards’ at the same time that professionals should work for their advancement and improvement.