Parent Empowerment and Awareness (PEA) will present a seminar for parents who are coping with teens who are abusive at home.

The seminar is to be held 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 11, in Lancaster. Seating is limited for this no-cost seminar. Please RSVP with Marilyn at 661-945-2360. The location will be given to attendees at that time.

aThe seminar offers a community effort to extend a helping hand to parents suffering abuse by a teen. Those making presentations and offering support and resources will be Dr. Ulrica Bell-Perkins, Colbert B. Williams Sr., MSW, LCSW, CAMF, who is a licensed clinical social worker and certified anger management facilitator).

Representatives from Palmdale's Families in Action, ACTION-Parent Teen Support Group, Antelope Valley Council on Alcoholism & Drug Dependency, a representative from Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department will also be present as will be Janie Hodge from Paving the Way Foundation.

Parents - whether foster, adoptive or biological - will receive information on how to recognize abuse, where and when to ask for help, what they can do to help themselves and where to find community resources and support.

"Because of a dearth of information about parent abuse, it is not known how often it occurs. There is also a severe lack of resources and supports. Many parents feel that the resources available seem to blame and defeat them rather than offer support. They often suffer abuse in isolation because of the shame and lack of public awareness attached to the issue. Hospitals, shelters and other institutions lack information about the topic and rarely ask the questions that could break through the silence and lead parents to gain support," writes Barbara Cottrell in "Parent Abuse: The Abuse of Parents by Their Teenage Children" (Family Violence Prevention Unit, Health Canada).

"Adolescent Violence Towards Parents: Myths and Realities" (Natasha Bobic, 2002, Rosemount Youth & Family Services) states that estimates that up to 29 percent of parents in a single parent home and up to 18 percent of parents in a two parent home suffer various forms of abuse by an adolescent. Siblings are often abused, also.

Abuse can take the form of physical abuse, psychological abuse, financial abuse, emotional abuse or a combination of all of the above. Behaviors that teens use against family members include, but are not limited to: Name-calling, degrading language, yelling, intimidating gestures, hitting, breaking throwing or smashing things or hurting pets, and stealing from family members.

"The purpose of the seminar is to offer parents who may be abused, encouragement, support and information about local resources that offer help. Speaking up about the abuse helps break the pattern," says Marilyn Dalrymple, seminar coordinator.