This is your chance to speak up about how your healing practitioners and the health care system could serve you better! Cultural anthropologist Kimberly D. Kirner, PhD, Pagan Druid, is conducting a survey to learn about “how Pagans think about health and healing, the types of healing practices they engage in, the choices they make in seeking care, and their experiences in the health care system and Pagan community with regard to their health,” she explains. She hopes that the results of this survey will help health practitioners “become more sensitive to respect for cultural and religious diversity as a whole, and conduct their practice in ways that are open-minded, no matter who that patient is, Pagan or non-Pagan.” All pagans over age 18 living in the United States can take the survey at www.surveymonkey.com/s/paganhealth. This survey is for pagans both with and without health problems.
The survey is completely anonymous and voluntary and takes approximately 30 minutes. Among other things, it asks what steps you took the last time you experienced a health issue. Choices given include seeing a physician, seeing a Reiki practitioner, taking herbs, etc. Both mental and physical health issues are covered. It asks whether you have experienced prejudice from health care professionals or from other pagans regarding your health condition and how you choose to deal with it. It also asks your opinion on several political issues, such as single-payer health care and the legalization of marijuana. Almost every question, including the one asking your gender at the beginning, has choices marked “other” and “decline to state.”
You may take the survey at www.surveymonkey.com/s/paganhealth any day before March 31 2013. Dr. Kirner will display the results of the survey on her faculty page at www.csun.edu/csbs/departments/anthropology/faculty_pages/kirner.html.
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