Firesetter Treatment Program
Harmony Hill School offers a highly effective residential Firesetter Treatment Program specially designed for boys ages 10 and up with multiple mental health diagnoses and/or cognitive challenges (although a minimum reading level of 3rd grade is required). Started in 2006, our own outcome research shows that 100% of the youth involved have completed their specific firesetter treatment goals, including safety protocol requirements. For those completing the programs, recidivism for firesetting behaviors has been extremely low and step-down to Harmony Hill's general population or less restrictive alternatives, including back to the youth's respective homes and communities, has been safe in terms of fire setting.
There are 2 component programs at Harmony Hill School devoted to firesetter behavior and treatment: the Firesetter Treatment Program ("FTP") and the Community Firesetter Education Program ("C-FEP").
▶ FTP
The Firesetter Treatment Program or "FTP" is based on the need for certain firesetting youth to receive intensive intervention. Firesetting is often the result of inappropriate channeling of emotions and/or manifestation of attempts to gain power and control and/or misguided response to crisis, curiosity, vengeance, or psychosis. The program incorporates two fundamental beliefs. First, that treatment efforts must ensure that the self-reinforcing cycle of firesetting is safely and effectively curtailed in a controlled, safe setting. Second, underlying deficits such as impulse control, affect regulation, lack of empathy, and moral reasoning, must be addressed.
HHS's Firesetter Treatment Program is a 6 month or more program using a comprehensive approach that is designed to impact the firesetter in the interrelated areas of safety/security, fire science and safety learning, cognitive behavioral capacity and family treatment need.
Individual, family, and group work may help the youth resolve underlying issues of trauma and neglect which have an extremely high prevalence in this specialty service population. Treatment focuses on fire safety training, social skill development, communication skills, moral reasoning, empathy, impulse control, cognitive distortions, and relapse prevention. Trauma recovery can be aided, as appropriate, by a small therapy group. Substance abuse recovery, sometimes an issue for firesetters, can be supported through specialized group work. The goal of treatment is to help the client develop strategies that break or interrupt their firesetting responses and develop coping skills which are socially responsible.
Youth in the FTP receive periodic "risk assessments". Sometime during the term of their program, a "comprehensive report" is written about their firesetting history, the course of their treatment, and future needs.
▶ C-FEP
"C-FEP" or Harmony Hill's Community-Based Fire Education Program is a 3-4 month curriculum for youth who have displayed inappropriate fire use in their history due to improper fire safety education or for those with "curiosity type" motivations or youth who set fire as more of an "accident" (i.e. while using substances, etc.). Youth in the C-FEP receive periodic safety assessments and a risk assessment at the end of the Program. There is no comprehensive report written for the youth in this program component.
The determination as to whether a youth needs "FTP" or "C-FEP" will be usually be made through a screening during the preadmission process. At times, however, the need for "FTP" will be recommended by the referral source based on an external evaluation. Occasionally, a youth will be started in C-FEP and need to be transferred to FTP.
Youth in both components get to participate in a 3-4 month group which meets on and off campus with a local fire safety professional and a Harmony Hill clinician. Fire service professionals work along with clinicians, providing youth and their families with fire safety/science knowledge, skills to increase communication regarding fire safety, and a relapse prevention plan for all members of the youth's living environment. Family therapy sessions as well as a family group at the local fire department assist the caregiver to construct an effective fire escape plan and utilize their local fire department for future help and concerns. Facilitated discussions with the caregiver and the youth stress the importance of home fire-safety searches, appropriate use of fire, and communication regarding fire usage. A final project focused on fire safety is required for completion.
