Trust Relationships Research Articles

Consensus methods with Nash and Kalai-Smorodinsky bargaining game for large-scale group decision-making

With the significant advancements in communication technology, group decision-making (GDM) can now be implemented online, allowing a large number of decision-makers (DMs) to participate concurrently. However, current methods for large-scale group decision-making (LSGDM) are primarily suitable for 20 to 50 DMs, and their effectiveness in scenarios involving thousands or even tens of thousands of participants has yet to be fully validated. Furthermore, as the number of participants increases, the evaluation information becomes increasingly diverse and complex. At the same time, the social networks associated with the DMs typically become sparse, making information sharing and consensus building more challenging. In light of these challenges, we develop two new methods based on cooperative games to effectively address the challenges in super LSGDM. First, we propose a two-stage semi-supervised fuzzy C-means (FCM) clustering method with trust constraints, which aims to address the issue of sparsity in relationships within large-scale social networks. This method utilizes trust relationships as reliable resources and prior knowledge to guide and supervise the clustering process. On this basis, we discuss three scenarios from the perspective of cooperative games: (i) subgroup optimal consensus adjustments in non-cooperative situations, (ii) group optimal consensus adjustments in cooperative situations, and (iii) subgroup optimal consensus adjustments in cooperative situations. Subsequently, we view the consensus adjustment allocation as a cost cooperative game problem and propose two new LSGDM consensus methods based on Nash Bargaining (NB) and Kalai-Smorodinsky Bargaining (KSB). Finally, experiments on real datasets demonstrate the superiority and reliability of our proposed LSGDM methods.

The effect of simulated problem learning in nursing ethics on moral sensitivity, empathy and critical thinking of nursing students: A quasi-experimental study

AimCompare the effects of Simulation with problem-based learning (SPBL) and Problem-based learning (PBL) in nursing ethics education on nursing students’ moral sensitivity, empathy, critical thinking, test scores and teaching satisfaction. BackgroundPromoting nursing students’ individual and ethical and abilities through education is an essential way to improve their ethical performance and build trustful relationship with patients. Despite significant efforts in this area, few have evaluated the effectiveness of Simulation with problem-based learning and Problem-based learning as applied to nursing ethics education. DesignA quasi-experimental design based on a non-equivalent control group pre-test/post-test. MethodsA quasi-experimental design was used. Participants were 161 undergraduate nursing students from two levels of a university, 88 subjects in the experimental group were taught using Simulation with problem-based learning and 73 subjects in the control group were taught using Problem-based learning. A pre-test, post-test and questionnaire were used to assess the effectiveness of student nursing ethics education. χ2 test was used to examine group differences in students’ characteristics and satisfaction with teaching post-intervention. Student’s t-test was used to assess group differences in scale scores and test scores. ResultsCompared to the pre-test, empathy as well as critical thinking were significantly higher in the PBL group (P<0.05), but there was no significant change in moral sensitivity (P>0.05); moral sensitivity, empathy and critical thinking were significantly higher in the SPBL group (P<0.05). Moreover, this study also showed that improvement in moral sensitivity, empathy, critical thinking and grades was more significant in the SPBL group of nursing students compared to the PBL group (P<0.05) and no statistically significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of teaching satisfaction (P>0.05). ConclusionThe use of Simulation with problem-based learning in nursing ethics education has a positive impact on nursing students' competency development and knowledge acquisition. Nurse educators should consider this teaching method and promote change to increase the effectiveness of nursing ethics education.

Sino-Italian Relations after the Belt and Road Initiative

Abstract The fluctuations of Italy’s China policy have been attracting attention. The only G7 country to join Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative in 2019, Italy was also the first European participant to withdraw in 2023. While scholars have investigated the rationales and implications of Rome’s actions, no satisfactory explanation has been provided as to why the Chinese government chose not to escalate tensions over Italy’s exit decision. This article argues that, faced with a degradation of trust in relations with the West, China has been attempting to balance its more assertive foreign policy with the need to strengthen its reputational security. Results from an original survey on the opinions about China held by Italian university students are then used to empirically assess China’s reputation among a strategically attentive public. Research findings from the 1,072-strong sample show that reputational capital resides with Chinese society more than with the PRC state, and that while the PRC is widely expected to match the US in economic might and global influence, Beijing’s policies in key realms such as the Ukraine war and the Covid-19 pandemic have been counterproductive for the preservation of China’s reputational security among individuals who are likely to play a key role in future Sino-Italian relations.

Criteria and tools for improving trust relations between dairy cluster stakeholders

The article shows the necessity and timeliness of building trusting relationships between stakeholders in projects to create a dairy cluster - an association of institutionally independent enterprises integrated into an inter-industry complex, in order to obtain a synergetic result from balanced cooperative relations between them. The cluster should take into account the interests of all its participants, so maintaining trust between them is necessary for the formation of the food chain in the dairy business, which in turn serves as a catalyst for the effective development of the dairy industry, increasing the volume of production and quality of dairy products. The aim is to study the influence of factors on the common interest, partnership between stakeholders in the project environment, as well as the development of methodological and practical recommendations for the application of tools of effective interaction between them, which contributes to the success of the project and the achievement of common goals. Methods - abstract-logical to identify problems and causes, online survey of respondents using Google-form, Cronbach's Alpha modeling methods are used to assess the reliability and internal consistency of questions in the model created in the Smart PLS program when analyzing complex relationships between latent variables (constructs) that cannot be measured directly. In the course of the study 76 respondents from all regions of Kazakhstan, which are potential stakeholders in the activities of the dairy subcomplex, were interviewed. Results - reliability and validity of the chosen conceptual model were established, the necessity of deepening the hypotheses put forward during the life cycle of the project on the functioning of the dairy cluster was proved. Conclusions - innovative entrepreneurship cannot be successful without managing the process of forming an atmosphere of trusting relations along the entire chain of the production process - from investors to consumers.

The effect of academic librarians’ trust and relationships on their knowledge-sharing practice using the theory of planned behaviour

This study investigates how trust and relationships influence knowledge-sharing practices among academic librarians in Malaysia. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), the research examines how trust affects librarians’ attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control, ultimately shaping their intentions and knowledge-sharing behaviours. Using a quantitative approach, data were collected from librarians in selected public and private university libraries in the Klang Valley region of Malaysia. The findings reveal a significant positive impact of trust and relationships on librarians’ willingness to share knowledge. The study also highlights that trust and positive relationships can indirectly influence knowledge-sharing practices by first shaping librarians’ attitudes, perceptions of social pressure, and confidence in their ability to share knowledge effectively. These results emphasize the importance of fostering a supportive library culture to promote knowledge sharing. Practical steps for libraries to cultivate such an environment are discussed, including (e.g. team-building activities and training programmes). Finally, the implications of these findings are explored, offering valuable insights for future research and library management practices.

민법 개정안에서 의사표시의 유효성

This article analyzes the main contents of the proposed amendments to the Civil Code suggested by the Civil Code Amendment Committee, which was launched on June 16, 2023, in relation to the validity of declarations of intent from a legislative policy and comparative law perspective. First, the proposed amendments maintain the current law for Articles 107, 108, and 110, except for minor modifications in wording. Next, the proposed amendment to Article 109 on mistakes explicitly includes mistakes regarding the juridical act's necessary basis (Grundlagenirrtum) and mistakes induced by the other party as grounds for avoidance. It also modifies the wording of the essential part requirement to clarify the subjective and objective causal relationships as its meaning. Furthermore, it exceptionally allows avoidance even when the declarant is grossly negligent, provided that the other party is also grossly negligent. These changes reflect both case law and comparative law. However, the proposed amendment does not accept the declarant's liability for damages in case of negligence and leaves the possibility of contract modification in case of mutual mistakes to doctrine and case law. Meanwhile, the newly introduced Article 110-2 recognizes a new ground for avoidance when the declarant makes a declaration of intent under undue interference in their decision-making due to a state of psychological dependence or a close relationship of trust. This rule attempts to introduce the common law doctrine of undue influence and protect the autonomy of intent in a manner equivalent to fraud and duress. The content and direction of the above-mentioned amendments appropriately reflect the current state of our doctrine and case law and align with recent legislative trends from a comparative law perspective.

Teachers’ perceptions of enabling and hindering factors in child abuse disclosures

ContextIt is well argued in literature that teachers are ideally placed to observe and monitor children for signs of abuse and neglect, there are categories of abuse which are more difficult to observe in the school context, such as sexual abuse and rely on children ‘telling’ about their experience. For numerous and complex reasons, children find it difficult to ‘tell’; however, there are enabling factors that support children in this process. AimThe aim of this paper is to outline primary or elementary school teachers’ opinions on the enabling and hindering factors to children talking and telling about abuse in the school environment. MethodsA qualitative research study was undertaken in the Irish context with 21 primary school teachers. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with all participants and as part of each interview, teachers elaborated on the barriers and facilitators which enable children to disclose abuse in the school environment. FindingsParticular barriers to children reporting in the school environment relate to how difficult it is for children to tell, the lack of meaningful collaboration between schools and the Child and Family Agency who have statutory responsibility in the Irish context for dealing with child protection reports and the lack of training available for teachers. Enablers to children telling in the school environment include the relationship of trust built between teacher and child and the implementation of a personal safety skills programme. ImplicationsThis research highlights that teachers can create the conditions that support children talking about abuse and they must be properly supported and adequately trained to support them in doing so.

Trust enhanced POI recommendation with collaborative learning

With the rapid development and popularization of smart mobile devices, users tend to share their visited points-of-interest (POIs) on the network with attached location information, which forms a location-based social network (LBSN). LBSNs contain a wealth of valuable information, including the geographical coordinates of POIs and the social connections among users. Nowadays, lots of trust-enhanced approaches have fused the trust relationships of users together with other auxiliary information to provide more accurate recommendations. However, in the traditional trust-aware approaches, the embedding processes of the information on different graphs with different properties (e.g., user-user graph is an isomorphic graph, user-POI graph is a heterogeneous graph) are independent of each other and different embedding information is directly fused together without guidance, which limits their performance. More effective information fusion strategies are needed to improve the performance of trust-enhanced recommendation. To this end, we propose a Trust Enhanced POI recommendation approach with Collaborative Learning (TECL) to merge geographic information and social influence. Our proposed model integrates two modules, a GAT-based graph autoencoder as trust relationships embedding module and a multi-layer deep neural network as a user-POI graph learning module. By applying collaborative learning strategy, these two modules can interact with each other. The trust embedding module can guide the selection of user’s potential features, and in turn the user-POI graph learning module enhances the embedding process of trust relationships. Different information is fused through the two-way interaction of information, instead of travelling in one direction. Extensive experiments are conducted using real-world datasets, and results illustrate that our suggested approach outperforms state-of-the-art methods.

Understanding Therapeutic Lying In The Care Of A Person with Dementia: An Evolutionary Concept Analysis

Abstract Background Therapeutic lying, described as any verbal or non-verbal behaviour or communication that involves the manipulation of information has been shown to be pervasive in dementia care. However, its theoretical foundation is difficult to underpin and appears to have evolved through practice without a clear definition. The aim of this study is to establish conceptual clarity around the concept of therapeutic lying in the care of a person with dementia. Methods Rodgers’ evolutionary concept analysis was used to focus on the contextual qualities of therapeutic lying. This dispositional view recognises that concepts are fluid in nature. The analysis involves deconstructing the concept into surrogate terms, attributes, antecedents, consequences and related terms to generate a greater understanding of its innate features. A systematic search relating to “therapeutic lying” and “dementia” was undertaken. The final study sample consisted of 37 papers. Results This analysis revealed therapeutic lying’s surrogate terms, attributes, antecedents, consequences and related terms in the care of a person with dementia. This study highlighted this concept is intended to be used in the person's best interests, for the purpose of doing good. However, its subjective nature makes it an extremely difficult concept to grasp collectively. Conclusion Therapeutic lying is highly dependent on individual interpretation and the caregiver’s moral compass. It can potentially damage trust in a caring relationship and may contribute to the “othering” of a person with dementia. The negative consequences surrounding this concept must be studied comprehensively before it is considered in practice. Therapeutic lying should be used only as a last resort when a person with dementia is exhibiting truth related distress. As the therapeutic effect of a therapeutic lie cannot be guaranteed, the term “well intentioned lying” is proposed as a potential alternative for the concept as this term highlights the caregiver’s good intention behind incorporating a lie during care.

Discovering the critical factors of affecting non-fungible tokens (NFT) purchase intention

This research is to explore the critical factors that affect the NFT trade and investigate the associated relationships of trust, security, privacy, attitudes, and purchase intentions. An empirical survey was conducted and then analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine the proposed research model. The results showed that risk perception, trust, and attitude have significant positive correlations with participants' intentions to purchase NFTs; in particular, trust and attitude play critical mediating roles in a proposed conceptual framework. The study's findings can offer valuable insights for decision making processes of stakeholders in the NFT market.

A hybrid architecture for secure data sharing in multi-clouds system

Abstract Cloud computing is one of the most cutting-edge technologies around the world that plays a major role in IT industries and personal use. Several sectors are showing efforts in adopting cloud computing to their services, considering the provided cost reduction and process efficiency. However, outsourcing users’ sensitive data increases the concerns regarding the security, privacy and integrity of stored data. Therefore, there is a need to build a trusting relationship between users and cloud systems. Hence, in this paper, we propose a privacy-preserving framework, called Hybrid and Secure Data Sharing Architecture (HSDSA), for secure data storage in cloud systems. The basic idea of HSDSA is to improve data security in a multi-cloud environment using a combination of cryptography techniques. These techniques ensure that the user has total control over the data generation and management of the decryption without relying on a trusted authority. HSDSA provides removal of centralized file storage distribution and ensures data integrity in the recovery process. We evaluate our contribution under Cloudera, and the results demonstrate the efficiency of HSDSA compared with the existing system.

Utilising Narrative Medicine to Identify Key Factors Affecting Quality of Life in Dry Eye Disease: An Italian Multicentre Study.

Despite an improved understanding of its pathogenesis, dry eye disease (DED) remains relatively underestimated and its treatment challenging. A better alignment between the clinical evaluation and the patient self-assessment also requires capturing the whole patient experience of DED. This project aimed to unveil this experience through narrative medicine (NM). The project involved 38 expert centres in Italy and one in San Marino, targeting adult patients with DED, their informal caregivers and their treating ophthalmologists. Written narratives and sociodemographic and quality of life (QoL)-related data were anonymously collected through the project's webpage. Narratives were analysed through MAXQDA (VERBI Software, Berlin, Germany), NM classifications and content analysis. A total of 171 patients with DED, 37 informal caregivers and 81 ophthalmologists participated in the research. DED was defined as a disabling condition by 19% of patients and 35% of caregivers; 70% of patients reported that a therapeutic alliance is an integral part of DED treatment and 32% hope for more effective therapies. Forty-four per cent of patients assessed their own QoL as good; however, DED emerged as importantly impacting work performance and social events. DED physical, emotional and economic burden and the cruciality of a trusting care relationship represent the main themes that emerged across all narratives, while empathy and effective treatment are among the factors favouring coping with DED. This project marked a pioneering initiative investigating the lived experience of patients with DED through NM, simultaneously involving all viewpoints involved in the care pathway. NM enabled the unveiling of factors favouring the ability to cope with DED and its associated QoL implications and provided valuable insights to improve the therapeutic alliance.

Recruiting for Engagement in Health Policy.

Who participates in public and patient engagement processes, and in what capacity they participate, matters. The strategies employed to recruit participants shape the outcomes and legitimacy of engagement processes. We explore these issues through a case study of workshop recruitment. We conducted a mixed-methods study drawing on literature about existing theories of engagement, and integrated findings from the research team's own public engagement workshop in September 2022. We sought to align theoretical frameworks with practical approaches to recruiting for engagement. There are inherent trade-offs in recruitment methods. While the theory of recruitment is valuable, practical implementation is complex and highly context-dependent. Engaging existing partners and fostering relationships beyond specific events is crucial. Hybrid workshops and low-barrier honoraria promote participation; however, decisions about location and time create barriers. Finally, balancing trusting relationships with critical perspectives can create tension. Recruitment is foundational for the engagement process, and requires flexibility, responsiveness and a realistic understanding of barriers. Our study suggests that there is no universal formula for ideal participant makeup or event format. Meaningful engagement requires ongoing dialogue and constant adjustment based on practice. Policy makers can use these insights to align recruitment and engagement strategies with their goals in order to move beyond quick, technocratic fixes.

Clinical decision-making during childbirth in health facilities from the perspectives of labouring women, relatives, and health care providers: A scoping review

ProblemFor health care providers to ensure appropriate decision-making in clinical settings during childbirth, facilitators and barriers must be identified. BackgroundWomen who experience a sense of control by participating in the decision-making process, are more likely to have a positive birth experience. However, decision-making may involve hierarchies of close observation and control. AimThe aim of the scoping review was to map and summarise existing literature on the process of clinical decision-making during childbirth from the perspective of labouring women, relatives and health care providers. MethodsWe carried out a scoping review in line with Joanna Briggs Institute scoping review methodology. The search identified studies in Scandinavian or English languages from 2010 - Jan 2023 comprising evidence at different levels of the pyramid, resulting in 18.227 hits. Following the PRISMA checklist, the final inclusion comprised 62 papers. FindingsFour main categories summarized the importance of the following factors: 1) Woman-caregiver relationship, with sub-categories The importance of communication and Midwifery care, 2) Consent and legal issues, 3) Organization, with sub-categories Medicalization, Working atmosphere, and Complexity, and 4) Decision-making tools and models, with sub-categories Shared decision-making, and Other tools and models for decision-making. ConclusionBalancing intuition and expertise of caregivers with evidence-based practices, is crucial to ensure women's participation in decision-making. Furthermore, a trusting relationship between the mother, partner, and health care provider is of utmost importance. Shared decision-making, which appeared to be the primary model for clinical decision-making regardless context, requires reflective practice and is a communication strategy.

"Data Free Flow with Trust": Japan's struggle to integrate democracy and human rights into digital trade policy.

A powerful regime for regulating trade, the Group of Seven (G-7) has increasingly negotiated its digital trade through bilateral and preferential trade agreements, including with non-member states in the Global South. Focusing on the dominant concept shaping these agreements, Japan's "Data Free Flow with Trust" (D.F.F.T.), we trace its discursively contested emergence and meaning within a national ("Society 5.0") vision for Japan's digital transformation, and its subsequent transnationalization in international fora and institutionalization in global digital trade policy. Drawing on our interviews with Japanese government ministers, business elites, and legal experts who contributed to the processual development of D.F.F.T., as well as diverse additional primary sources, we find that the D.F.F.T. has become more than a trade policy, covering a wider range of social and geopolitical issues. In particular, we show that contention over "data localization measures" has restructured international relations of trust, especially across the Global North/South divide. Ultimately, this research report contributes to our understanding of how D.F.F.T. poses threats to human rights, democracy, and the global knowledge economy that may undermine its goals of enhancing innovation capacity and economic growth.

Herd behavior identification based on coevolution in human–machine collaborative multi-stage large group decision-making

As the scale of multi-stage large group decision-making (LGDM) continues to expand, the possibility of low-contribution individuals exhibiting herd behavior also increases, potentially leading to the phenomenon of “fishing in troubled waters.” This may obstruct the speed of consensus reaching while generating no valuable opinions, which is a topic worthy of exploration. Considering that humans are easily influenced by interests, the employment of machine intelligence to objectively identify herd behavior is more appropriate. In this context, a herd behavior identification method based on behavioral characteristics clustering from the perspective of human–machine collaboration is herein proposed. First, from the human side, an opinion–social network coevolution model is constructed to simulate the consensus reaching process (CRP) of the expert group. Then, the group is clustered into three subgroups in consideration of behavior that encompasses both opinion changes and trust relationship changes. Based on this, the low-contribution cluster with a herd behavior pattern can be optimized from the machine side. Through simulation experiments, it is verified that herd behavior management significantly accelerates the consensus-reaching speed under the premise of having minimal impact on the decision-making results. In general terms, this study is the first to propose the concept of herd behavior and provides a solution to manage it from a new perspective, which is suitable for application in multi-stage LGDM scenarios.

Sources of trust in the healthcare context. A multilevel relationship with work engagement and organisational outcomes.

The present study analysed the mediating role of interactional justice and horizontal trust between transformational leadership and organisational outcomes (i.e., job performance and service quality) at the work team level and the cross-level relationship of team horizontal trust with job performance at the individual level, controlling for work engagement based on the HERO Model. Through structural equations and hierarchical linear models, the proposed hypotheses were addressed. The sample corresponds to 1,638 workers grouped into 109 work teams belonging to 28 hospitals in Spain. First, Structural Equation Modelling analysis revealed that, as expected, at the team level, interactional justice and horizontal trust mediate positive and significantly the relationship between transformational leadership and organisational outcomes (i.e., job performance and service quality). Secondly, the results of the Linear Hierarchical Models showed a positive relationship between work engagement and individual level performance. Finally, the multilevel analysis revealed that horizontal trust at the team level is positively related to work engagement at individual level; however, there is no cross-level relationship between horizontal trust at the team level and individual performance controlled by work engagement. Horizontal trust, at the team level, is positioned as a mediating variable between resources and organisational outcomes. Furthermore, it proves to be a key cross-level element for generating work engagement and job performance. The theoretical and practical implications of the study based on the HERO Model are discussed.

Having Reliable Support: A Prerequisite to Promote Sexual and Reproductive Health in Young Women with ADHD.

Living with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may influence sexual behaviors and intimate relationships in young women, resulting in a higher risk of unwanted pregnancy, sexual victimization, and sexual dysfunction. To develop adequate support, the study aimed to describe conceptions of how to promote sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in young women with ADHD. A secondary analysis using phenomenography was performed on qualitative interview data exploring variations of support. The study involved 15 young women with ADHD, aged 15-29 years, and 16 health care professionals, with various professions, working in the fields of gynecology, youth health, and psychiatry. Having reliable support was conceptualized as fundamental for promoting SRH. Access to information concerning SRH and living with ADHD as well as early support from health care contributed to a reliable support enabling self-knowledge and management of sexual relationships. Trustful relationships in health care were perceived as important because of previous experiences of feeling misunderstood and criticized in life, making them feel comfortable discussing SRH. Clinical encounters with a clear structure were further perceived to make information more accessible and clinics that provided appropriate organizational conditions and collaborated with other clinics were described to enhance the availability of support. This study reveals the need for clinics to provide conditions that ensure SRH support is available, accessible, and free of stigmatization. Early intervention programs for young women with ADHD may be considered, offering guidance on SRH issues in both psychiatric and sexual health clinics.

Escaping uncertainty: overlapping methods of knowledge production and exchange in the naturalization journey

This paper examines how forced migrants integrate individual perception, interpersonal exchange, and extended networks to navigate the naturalization process. By bringing together these three methods of knowledge creation and exchange, we aim to clarify how these strategies interact and overlap to manage uncertainties stemming from naturalization bureaucracy, a complex and often opaque process. Drawing on personal accounts of 30 Syrians in Berlin and analysis of approximately 100 social media posts, our findings illustrate that these methods could be employed concurrently or interchangeably and on the whole in a symbiotic manner, offering migrants multiple pathways to acquire and (in)validate crucial information. Although this synthesis of knowledge production methods is not necessarily conducive to accessing the right in question, in our case naturalization, it becomes necessary to arrive at “informed” decision-making in uncertain environments characterized by low level of trust and asymmetrical power relations. The paper therefore contributes to broader discussions on migrants’ navigation of legal systems and coping mechanisms in the face of bureaucratic hurdles.

Co-producing and co-assessing a new service solution for enhancing health and social care integration: a participatory research protocol

BackgroundThis paper describes a study protocol for co-producing and co-assessing a new sustainable and scalable service solution that enhances health and social integration by involving providers and volunteers delivering services for elderly people in the province of Cremona (Italy), where the elderly population will reach 27% in 2023.MethodsThis upcoming study involves mixed-method participatory research and is structured in three study phases and related objectives. First, it will co-produce a new, accessible and sustainable service solution using an iterative design and management method, Plan-Do-Check-Act by involving professionals and volunteers of a heterogeneous group of health, social and third sector organizations located in the city of Cremona (Italy). Second, the study protocol will co-assess the outcomes of the new service solution using a mixed-method approach for measuring the outcomes on: professionals and volunteers (micro level) and their health, social and third sector organizations (meso level). Third, this study will co-investigate the scalability of the new solution promoting health and social integration in other similar urban areas of the Province of Cremona via the Intervention Scalability Assessment Tool (macro level). The data will be collected through the analysis of official documents, websites, policies and participatory workshops.DiscussionThis protocol proposes an innovative intervention, a novel participatory approach, and an unexplored scalability assessment tool in the context of health and social care integration. This study aims to support professionals from health and social care service providers and volunteers from third-sector organizations to collaborate and integrate each other’s resources. In doing so, the participatory approach will facilitate the co-creation of an effective response to the need of health and social integration, and the development of trustful relationships between health and social care service providers. Moreover, the adoption of Plan-Do-Check-Act and Intervention Scalability Assessment Tool will ensure the quality, scalability and sustainability of the new service solution in other settings.