Podcasts

Domestic abuse is an incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening, degrading and violent behaviour, including sexual violence, by a partner, ex-partner, a family member, or carer. It can affect anybody.

Listen to the Domestic Abuse podcast, Relationships Shouldn’t Hurt, to further your understanding of a range of topics surrounding Domestic Abuse.

Available on all podcast streaming apps, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Anchor.

Content Warnings

All podcast episodes contain content that may be upsetting for some listeners.

If you or someone you know has been affected by domestic abuse or the issues raised in this podcast, there is support available.

If someone is in immediate danger, please call the Police on 999.

Accessibility

Central Bedfordshire Council, the Domestic Abuse team and BDAP want the information in our podcasts to be accessible to as many people as possible. Transcripts of all episodes are available alongside the episode link.

About

Launched in December 2020, Relationships Shouldn’t Hurt is produced by the Domestic Abuse team at Central Bedfordshire Council (CBC). The team is part of the Bedfordshire Domestic Abuse Partnership (BDAP), which brings together key agencies across Bedfordshire to raise awareness around and deliver support to those affected by domestic abuse and unhealthy relationships.

Series 1 includes 14 episodes and covers topics such as ‘What is Domestic Abuse?’, ‘Stalking and Harassment’ and ‘Domestic Abuse Protection Orders’ amongst others. The series has been listened to over 1000 times and each episode is hosted by a member of the CBC Domestic Abuse team, with guest speakers from across the BDAP partner organisations. Recorded in Bedfordshire, any information given is relevant to current domestic abuse practice within the UK (specifically England), some organisations are national, but others are Bedfordshire specific.

Relationships Shouldn’t Hurt is for anyone wanting to know more about domestic abuse, we aim to help listeners gain knowledge on how to deal with domestic abuse incidents when they witness them, understand the different support agencies available for both victims and perpetrators, to encourage listeners who may be victims or perpetrators themselves to seek help and to empower victims to gain back their confidence. With police recorded domestic abuse related crimes in the year March 2020 – March 2021 being 845,734 cases (across England and Wales), more awareness of domestic abuse and how to help those affected is necessary.