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“Why should you take the Pagan Health Survey II? I am Pagan Druid and a cultural anthropologist at California State University, Northridge. I started the Pagan Health Survey in 2010, which provided a snapshot into the Pagan community, including our beliefs about healing and wellness and the choices we make in navigating the health care community. From the first survey, we learned that our community shares some strong common models about healing and wellness and that we have particular challenges in obtaining optimal health care. The top two challenges Pagans faced were: Linkages to Pagan-friendly, culturally competent health professionals and Barriers to accessing adequate health care among those who have lower incomes, rural locations, minority status, and/or who are seniors. The Pagan Health Survey II investigates these two challenges in more depth. Your participation will provide better data for community organizing, educating the public and health care community, and assisting Pagan leaders in responding to the community’s healing and wellness needs.”

Back in 2010 cultural anthropologist Kimberly Kirner , PhD (formerly Hedrick), launched a Pagan health survey to, quote, “help policy-makers and service providers understand our needs and beliefs.” The data collected from that survey was presented at the annual meeting of The American Public Health Association (APHA) in November of that year. Now, Dr. Kirner is launching a follow-up survey to explore some of her initial findings in greater depth

Resources for this updated survey of the Pagan community’s healthy needs are being provided by California State University, Northridge and NIH RIMI (National Institutes of Health Research Infrastructure for Minority Institutions). Kirner stresses that the survey collects no identifying information, and that participants will not be asked for their name, contact information, or “or any other data that would compromise your anonymity.” Kirner further explains that “participation in this study is completely voluntary and you may withdraw at any time.” The study has been reviewed and approved by the CSUN Institutional Review Board.

Here’s a link to the survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/paganhealth

The survey takes around 30 minutes to complete, depending on the length of your answers. Participants must identify as Pagan, Heathen, or another related spirituality/faith. The survey is only open to people living in the United States, and you must be 18 or older. You can contact Dr. Kirner, here. If you wish to pass along the original press release for this survey, you can find it here.

This ongoing work by Dr. Kirner could really provide useful data that helps our communities in the long-term, providing important insights for Pagan organizations wanting to be more responsive to our community’s needs, and helping secular institutions to serve us better. To get a statistically significant sample it needs thousands of respondents, so please share this far and wide to anyone you think might be interested.