If only someone had asked

Health professionals are in a unique position to identify and respond to family violence. They’re able to quickly establish trust and rapport with patients seeking treatment for injuries or medical conditions resulting from family violence. Yet some victim-survivors have found that when they’ve presented to hospital, their experiences of family violence were minimised, medicalised or, worse yet, they were inadvertently silenced.
This Western Health podcast series – If only someone had asked – explores the issue of family violence: what it is and why it occurs; how to identify it when we see it; and how we as a health sector can respond.
We’ll hear from women with lived experience of family violence as well as community and health professionals working to strengthen responses to family violence. 
Some of what we cover is harrowing, but there’s hope too. We can make a difference. We can be that someone who asked. Who showed compassion. Who believed. Who provided someone in danger with what might be that first important step towards safety.