For US Druids: Pagan Health Survey Initiative

[path_of_one]

Hi, All-

I'm an OBODie (just made Ovate- yay!) and Pagan.

I'm asking Pagans in the US to join me in a grassroots initiative I designed to communicate Pagan worldviews, choices, and needs related to health care to the American Public Health Association this fall at their annual conference. The APHA had a call for papers dealing with Pagan views of health earlier this year, seeking to better understand how to serve the Pagan population (along with several other minority religious groups). As both a Pagan and cultural anthropologist, I felt it was vitally important that we help policy-makers and service providers understand our needs and beliefs. This will help us to meet the health care needs of our community and build public understanding of our religious and spiritual traditions.

I designed the Pagan Health Survey to help people better understand us and our views on health. The results will be combined with what I have gained by being within the Pagan community and sitting in on healing panel discussions, workshops, and so forth, as well as interviews with Pagan clergy and health care practitioners. This research is being funded through my grassroots nonprofit, TriWinds Institute (www.triwindsinstitute.org) through donations.

My goal is to have a statistically significant sample of the Pagan population, which given the 2001 ARIS study, is approximately 3,000 people (10% of the self-reporting Pagan population). I am trying to gain this sample in a very short timeline- approximately two months- which affords a snapshot into the Pagan community that is immediately relevant.

I am happy to answer any and all questions about the survey, its uses, and my own background. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

Please consider taking the survey and passing it on to your Pagan and Heathen friends.

The survey can be found online at: www.surveymonkey.com/s/paganhealthsurvey.

Bright Blessings,
Kimberly Hedrick, PhD
paganhealthsurvey@live.com

[Aitrus]

Good survey.

[Art]

I'm not entirely sure why pagan thoughts on healt would or should be any different than anyone elses. I guess this particular survey simply doesn't seem to address anything at all.

[path_of_one]

Sorry- can't seem to edit the original, but wanted to add... Apologies for the mistakes, but 14 hour workdays have been taking their toll.

First- a typo. The statistically relevant sample would have been approximately 1% (of 330,000), not 10% (which would have been huge).

Second- it came to my attention that the 2008 PEW Forum report has estimated 1.98 million Wiccans and Pagans in the U.S. Fortunately, in populations this large, this makes virtually no impact on statistically relevant sample size. Yay!

[path_of_one]

I'm not entirely sure why pagan thoughts on healt would or should be any different than anyone elses. I guess this particular survey simply doesn't seem to address anything at all.

Art, according to the last five years of my research through participant observation, and my background with the biomedical community, Pagan beliefs about health and wellness, along with their perceptions of medicine and use of alternative forms of treatment, are significantly different from the U.S. norm. I can't go into details as the purpose is for people to answer the questions without being impacted by the researcher. I can only say that similar to certain other minority religious groups, such as Taoists, many Pagan views on health and desired treatment options are not the same as those held by the biomedical community. I would imagine this divergence is partially what prompted the American Public Health Association to call for papers in order to better understand us (along with several other minority religions).