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The Services Aimed at Fire Education and Treatment for Youth (SAFETY) Program is a specialty service directed by faculty and staff affiliated with UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital (WPH) working in collaboration with the Allegheny County Juvenile Court and the Special Services Unit from Juvenile Probation, and with Allegheny County Office of Children, Youth, and Families (OCYF). SAFETY provides services for children and teens who have shown a strong interest in or preoccupation with fire, played with matches, burned property, set a fire, or used incendiary materials or explosives.

Our program offers individualized assessment, educational, and/or treatment services for children and adolescents who misuse fire. The program also provides consultation and training to providers or agencies.

This service extends more than 30 years of research designed to evaluate the characteristics, course, history, and treatment of child firesetting, supported, in part, by federal (National Institute of Mental Health) and local (State Farm Insurance) grants. Much of this work has developed and documented the benefits of novel educational and clinical interventions, which are now incorporated in our program (Kolko, 1985, 2001; Kolko et al., 2009, 2011).