Fight childhood mental health problems with nature

A specialist in child mental health says we need to get our children into nature more often to keep them healthy.

Dr. ShimiKhan,the medical director of child and youth mental health in Vancouver, is speaking Monday night in Saskatoon as part of the Nature City Festival.

"We all know that right nowour children are really in crisis," said Khan, referring torising rates of anxiety, depression, obesity and overuse of video games and screens among young people."A wonderful way to combat that is nature."

Kang saidthe same is true for adults. "We humans were never meant to sit at a desk inside all day staring at a screen."

Our bodies and our brains, saidKang,still need the natural world to flourish.

"For most of our human history we have been outside in nature walking in groups."