Version 1.2

Last updated April 14, 2022

Overview

This guidance outlines the principles to which all Sacred Plant Alliance (SPA) member organizations commit in regards to the health and safety of our community members, participants, and the larger communities in which we live and work.

1. Priority of Health and Safety

We commit, first and foremost, to prioritize the health and safety of our participants. We respect and adhere to the time-honored principle of ‘First do no harm.’ We will not engage in practices in which we have not been adequately trained to provide in a safe and appropriate manner.

Moreover, because we know that different traditions may have different interpretations of what an ideal state of health and well-being is, we humbly acknowledge that each tradition’s approach to respecting and assuring the well-being of its members will differ to some degree.

2. Informed Consent

We will obtain informed consent from all participants prior to their involvement in any ceremonial work that includes psychoactive sacraments. Informed consent must be obtained when participants are sober and in an ordinary state of consciousness. This informed consent will include a discussion of the nature of the organization’s ritual practice, including a discussion of how participants may find themselves in a vulnerable state during the ritual and that it will be incumbent on the ritual leaders to keep all participants and facilitators safe during the ceremony.

Participants will be made aware of the ethical code by which practitioners are bound, and that if at any point a participant feels their rights or well-being, or those of others in the community, have been violated by unsafe or unethical practice, they are encouraged to discuss these concerns first with the leaders of that community, and then if needed with SPA leadership.

3. Training of Leaders

We are responsible for ensuring the adequate training and preparation of their ceremonial leaders and assistants (“leaders”). This includes training in the proper handling and administration of sacraments and the means of conducting ceremonies as well as the handling of expected and unexpected health events before, during or after a given ceremony. Special attention will be required of practitioners who use more than one sacrament in their ritual work. Care must be taken to avoid unsafe interactions of sacraments, and to educate participants about the effects of different sacraments, and different forms of preparation and integration that may be required.

Member organizations should have personnel on site who are competent in Basic Life Support (BLS) knowledge and skills, or who are willing and able to call for emergency medical care (“911”) if indicated. In everyday life there is always the risk of a serious medical event that requires emergency medical care, and SPA member organizations commit to facilitating access to such care if it is needed.

Ceremonial leaders will make routine health and hygiene supplies available (soap and water, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, etc), and will provide emergency protocols and adequate supplies for each ceremonial site; this may include the availability of First Aid kits and instructions (e.g., the Red Cross First Aid phone app) and/or an automated external defibrillator (AED).

4. Screening, Preparation and Follow-up Monitoring

We commit to conducting dutiful health screening prior to allowing new participants to engage in ceremonial practice. We will also continue to screen and evaluate experienced participants throughout the course of their participation in our communities. Health screening will include reviewing a person’s medical and mental health history, current medical treatments (e.g., what prescription medications they take), and what substances they may use (e.g., alcohol, tobacco, etc.). If ever we have concerns that participating in ceremony may not be a healthy choice for someone, we commit to openly and honestly discuss our concerns with that person, and, where appropriate, refer them to a licensed healthcare provider to evaluate these concerns further.

Leaders are advised to keep copies of health screening records for a minimum of three years, and to store these records in a secure, locked location that will ensure the privacy of the participant and their health information, ideally following HIPAA-level privacy practices. Leaders are expected to respect the confidentiality of participants’ personal information, except for cases where maintaining confidentiality would likely lead to serious harm to the participant or another person, or where SPA leaders would otherwise be considered mandatory reporters as clergy.

Leaders should discuss these limits of confidentiality with all participants, and inform participants that their health records are retained. Follow-up monitoring should also include telephone conversations and integration circles or referral to such circles when deemed necessary.

5. Learning and Improvement

We commit to learning and improving our health and safety practices over time, which includes sharing information with other member organizations of SPA. SPA leadership will also provide updates on relevant health and safety issues to the member organizations as appropriate.

Practitioners are encouraged to continue their education in best practices through both traditional (e.g., apprenticeship within a lineage) and conventional (e.g., health and spiritual care education) means throughout the course of their career leading ceremonies.

SPA leaders commit to a process of peer-review and open and honest discussion of adverse health events if they do occur (i.e. death, hospitalization, and necessary referral for professional medical or psychiatric care related to ceremony participation). Leaders will be expected to report serious adverse health events to SPA leadership, and to participate in a peer-review of the incident in order to learn how best to prevent a similar event in the future. Leaders are encouraged to discuss such events and peer-review process outcomes with other SPA members in order to help prevent such events occurring in other SPA member organizations.

6. COVID-19 protocol requirement

We commit to maintaining, adapting, and following a protocol for the screening and prevention of COVID-19 that is adequate for our communities and the current, local situation of the pandemic.