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Rachel Burr, Campaigns Officer at Citizens Advice, shares details of the charity’s latest campaign to get the nation to open up about domestic abuse.

I don’t need to tell you the stats. But it’s pretty shocking to think that, according to the Crime Survey of England and Wales, last year one in every fifteen women, and one in every 33 men experienced domestic abuse at the hands of their partner or former partner. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Specialist services do some amazing work, but sadly most victims never get specialist help. We know victims are more likely to talk to friends and family than the police or specialist services. Friends and family may be able to support victims where others might not be able to, but at the moment they don’t always feel confident in doing so.

That’s why, today, Citizens Advice launches the ‘Talk about abuse’ campaign.

We want to empower everyone to recognise abuse, to talk about it safely and to enable victims to make the right decisions for themselves. We’ll be directing friends and family members to our online guidance, which has been written with help from specialists such as SafeLives, and gives people tips on how to start a conversation, while signposting to further support.

We’re launching the campaign with an event in parliament, where we’re delighted to have Diana Barran, Chief Executive of SafeLives, speaking. We’ll also be kicking off an online Twitter chat about the signs of domestic abuse, at 1pm. Follow @CABaction and #talkaboutabuse to take part.

Get involved

The success of this campaign depends on getting the message out as widely as possible. We want to start thousands of conversations in our communities, to get the country talking about domestic abuse.

You can get involved by publicising the campaign on social media, putting posters and leaflets in as many locations as possible, and by letting clients and colleagues know about our online guidance.

For more information, contact rachel.burr@citizensadvice.org.uk.