Challenges Associated With Establishing a Token Economy in a Residential Care Facility

Abstract

This case study describes challenges associated with the authors’ ongoing efforts to institute a token program in a residential foster care facility. This privately funded facility houses children and adolescents in a community group home format. Inadequate or neglectful parenting is the most common circumstance accounting for the children’s placement. Adjustment problems and oppositional behavior in the residential cottages prompted the facility to contract for consultative psychological services. Consultants spent approximately 20 hr a week in the facility observing resident–caregiver interactions, designing a comprehensive token program targeting inappropriate child behavior, and training and monitoring implementation of the program. Although facility staff reported a desire to learn how to manage better the residents’ oppositional and defiant behavior, and were heavily involved in development of the token program, they exhibited resistance to and noncompliance with the token program as soon as it was put into place. In addition to discussing these difficulties, suggestions for promoting an effective token intervention within this type of setting are discussed.