Health promotion partnerships in Israel: motives, enhancing and inhibiting factors, and modes of structure

Multisectoral cooperation is an important strategy in working for health promotion. Fifty-two health professionals completed a questionnaire measuring factors motivating, enhancing and inhibiting partnerships. The respondents also reported the type or structure of the partnerships. The results indicated that partnerships were formed primarily in order to promote the project; however, previous positive experience with partnerships was also very important as a motivating force for joining partnerships. The three most important facilitating factors were related to project management: effective leadership, aims of the project, and sharing a vision and goals. The two most frequent items mentioned as very important barriers to partnerships were related to dysfunction of the steering committee. Two types or structures of partnerships were identified. The first was fragmental, where partnerships existed only at specific stages of the project; most respondents reported working within this structure. The second type was continuous, where partnerships existed through all the project's stages. Using multiple regression analysis we found that health staff (mainly nurses) worked more frequently in fragmental partnership structures than did health promotion and welfare workers. In addition, the more experienced the respondents, the less they worked in fragmental partnership structures. These results highlight the importance of acquiring skills for working in partnerships and indicate a need for guidelines to be agreed by the partners at the beginning of the working process.