Funds from the Dry July 2019 campaign will enable the Dry July Foundation to introduce therapy-based and therapeutic art activities into the cancer wellness program via the Cancer Wellness Centre which is currently being developed and is due to open mid-October 2019. 

Arts in Health at Flinders Medical Centre (FMC) was introduced at FMC in 1996. The program currently works across all clinical areas of the hospital and currently supports in-patients in the oncology ward. These services will be adapted to deliver an Arts in Health program through the cancer wellness centre at Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer. 

For a cancer patient, an engagement with a supported visual at activity can be used to: 

- improve mood and mobility

- provide an avenue for emotional or psychological expression

- create alternative methods of non-verbal communication for thoughts and feelings that might otherwise be difficult to communicate about

- be a relaxing distraction from the imperatives of clinical treatment

- provide opportunities for social and community engagement in supportive environments

- create opportunities to share something joyful with families and friends

- offer the chance to learn new skills and techniques to support recovery

- provide information and tools to promote physical wellness through education

- support gentle exercise regimes with physical activities, such as felting

Image: Illustration of section of the new Cancer Wellness Centre under construction at the Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer

The Foundation Cafe at Flinders Foundation are on board and taking part in Dry July to raise funds towards further development of the Cancer Wellness Centre. Next week they will be getting creative in the kitchen and selling hand baked goodies with all proceeds going to the Flinders Foundation Dry July campaign.

Last week saw Flinders Foundation featured on TEN News Adelaide in a Dry July promotion. If you would like to see the news piece you can watch it here

It's not too late to sign up for Dry July and raise funds for this wonderful organisation. If you would like to take part and help Flinders Foundation reach their goal, please click HERE 

Thanks to the incredible fundraising of Dry July participants and support of Dry July Foundation, building will get underway in the coming months on a new cancer wellness centre at Flinders to better support patients and their families affected by cancer.

The centre will feature two multi-purpose consulting rooms to accommodate dietitians, psychologists, financial counsellors, exercise physiologists and other services to better support the physical, psychological, emotional and practical needs of patients which aren’t often easily managed in the cancer clinic.

Cancer patients and their families attend about 30,000 appointments at Flinders each year. During these appointments they can be confronted with the best of news, or the worst of news. Private areas in the wellness centre will give them and their families a quiet space to digest information they have just received.

The centre’s lounge will also provide comfortable areas for patients to sit and relax before and after treatment and appointments. While an information library will help connect the 2500 patients diagnosed with cancer at Flinders each year with services and support to help them overcome the effects of cancer and meet their individual needs. 

We’re so thrilled the cancer wellness centre will be open from October… it simply wouldn’t have been possible without the Dry July Foundation and the thousands of people who pledge to ‘go dry’ in July! Thank you!

Excitingly, all funds raised this July will be used to support wellness services in the centre to ensure people with cancer can live well during, and after, cancer treatment.

We're proud to announce that Flinders Foundation has received a grant from the Dry July Foundation 2018 Grant Program.

The grant will go towards the following: 

• Developing and furnishing the family room at the new wellness centre at Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer (FCIC), to provide a dedicated space for the entire family to be a part of diagnosis, treatment and other stages of living with cancer.

Director of The Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer Professor Bogda Koczwara discusses the need to build a Cancer Wellness Centre within the building for people and their families affected by cancer.

Sign up to Dry July and help Flinders Foundation raise $500,000 to make this centre a reality. 

Click HERE to watch the video.