Elastic scattering observables (differential cross section and analyzing power) are calculated for the reaction $^6$He(p,p)$^6$He at projectile energies starting at 71 MeV/nucleon. The optical potential needed to describe the reaction is based on a microscopic Watson first-order folding potential, which explicitly takes into account that the two neutrons outside the $^4$He-core occupy an open p-shell. The folding of the single-particle harmonic oscillator density matrix with the nucleon-nucleon t-matrix leads for this case to new terms not present in traditional folding optical potentials for closed shell nuclei. The effect of those new terms on the elastic scattering observables is investigated. Furthermore, the influence of an exponential tail of the p-shell wave functions on the scattering observables is studied, as well as the sensitivity of the observables to variations of matter and charge radius. Finally elastic scattering observables for the reaction $^8$He(p,p)$^8$He are presented at selected projectile energies.
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