Our Story
Sarah Twomey founded Healthy Hips Australia after recognising the need for a national body offering support and education to those affected by hip dysplasia.
A mother of two children treated for the condition, Sarah believes that increasing support, education and resources in Australia will benefit all people impacted by the condition, along with the community-based health professionals working with them.
Our Board
Established in 2015, Healthy Hips Australia rapidly evolved to meet demand for support, and fill the gap in raising awareness of hip dysplasia to facilitate early diagnosis.
Healthy Hips Australia has a small, enthusiastic Board of Directors. We also have advisors contributing to the direction of the organisation. We thank them all for volunteering their time and expertise. Meet our Board of Directors.
Helping hip dysplasia to be seen, and uniting those impacted by it.
Our Value Proposition
Healthy Hips Australia is run by people who have been impacted by, or working with those impacted by, hip dysplasia. We combine capacity-building with research facilitation, resource development, mentoring, and support to connect and empower the hip dysplasia community.
As Australia’s only hip dysplasia charity, we help people get diagnosed, supported and informed about this common musculoskeletal condition. Treatment outcomes are favourable when diagnosed early, so we encourage everyone to know of the condition, its risk factors and potential signs, and empower parents to start a conversation with their child’s health professional about their hip health. For those with hip dysplasia across the lifespan, our aim is to minimise the physical, social, emotional and financial impact of the condition through our work. Our focus for research collaboration is to facilitate opportunities to decrease the variability in Australian screening and treatment guidelines to ensure practical, consistent and knowledgeable care is provided.
Healthy Hips Australia is a health promotion charity, its activities are intended to help hip dysplasia to be seen, and unite and empower those impacted by it. Whilst it isn’t life threatening, hip dysplasia can be life changing.
Our Core Values
Connection
Community
Knowledge
Empowerment
Our Objectives
- Connect individuals and their families to the hip community to meet the support needs of people impacted by hip dysplasia.
- Enhance the capability of individuals and their families.
- Provide accessible and informative resources for individuals, their families, and allied health professionals working with them.
- Empower the broader community to advocate for their/their child’s hip health.
- Trusted source of hip dysplasia resources for health professionals to ensure practical, consistent and knowledgeable care is provided.
- Facilitate opportunities to decrease the variability in Australian screening and treatment guidelines by participating in research.
- Bring a national focus to the importance of ongoing hip surveillance for all infants until walking age.
- Undertake evaluation and research, to ensure Healthy Hips Australia continues to produce quality outcomes.
Principle Activities
- Provision of accessible online resources
- Facilitation of peer support networks
- Community and public health education
- Research collaborations
The International Hip Dysplasia Institute (IHDI) is the world leader in promoting prevention, diagnosis and treatment of hip dysplasia. The efforts of our founder, Sarah Twomey, have been recognised by her appointment to the International Advisory Committee of the IHDI. The IHDI have endorsed several of our parent tips and hints handouts. We look forward to contributing to the global efforts in promoting prevention, diagnosis and treatment of hip dysplasia along side the IHDI.
International Hip Health Day is a celebration of the global hip health community, and a call for improved awareness of the global impact of paediatric health conditions.
In 2021 at the Inaugural International Hip Health Day, Sarah Twomey along with six others from around the world, was recognised for her dedication and achievement in advancing global paediatric hip health.
The International Hip Dysplasia Registry (IHDR) aims to address gaps in evidence demonstrated by the 2014 AAOS guidelines, with the goal of identifying the best practices, standardising treatment and management, and optimising clinical and functional outcomes for children with DDH. Our founder, Sarah Twomey, is the Co-Chair of the IHDR Knowledge Translation Committee facilitating the dissemination of the IHDR’s work.