http://www.camh.net/Publications/Cross_Currents/Summer%202008/eldersspeak_crcusummer08.html
This is a short article on the Center for Addiction and Mental Health site. It talks about elders spending time with children in foster care. One particular example relates a story of an elder taking a group of foster children on a medicine walk through a forest in Duncan, B.C.
A six-year-old girl hurt her ankle playing in the forest. She wrapped her ankle in a healing fern she had learned about from the elder. This is just one example of how powerful the connection between the elders and the children can be and shows how much it is missed when that connections has been severed.
The medicine walk is hosted by the Surrounded by Cedars, an aboriginal child and family welfare agency in Victoria, BC. “This day-long excursion and the lessons it taught are an example of the valuable role that aboriginal elders can play in ensuring that the future of youth includes a strong link to the cultural knowledge and traditions that will ground them in their identity as aboriginal peoples.”
The site also provides links to various mental health sites.