Ethical and methodological issues in evaluating a perinatal addiction treatment program with a fluid population

A naturalistic field study was used to evaluate a fluid sample population i n an addiction treatment program. This article presents the methodological and ethical issues in program evaluation confronted by the author and the a pproaches developed to address them. Methodological issues include credibil ity and fittingness of instrumental, lack of standardization of histories, replication, trust issues of subjects, attrition, client follow-up, and rap idly changing subject population. Ethical issues include informed consent, interpretation of data from a cultural bias-free perspective and client fol low-up. A semistructured interview schedule allowed for standardization of the questioning format and replication of data gathering. Triangulation of data enhanced validity and internal stability. A fluid sample frame can opt imally reflect the population in the program under study if available resou rces are used! effectively while protecting patient rights to privacy, conf identiality, and freedom from manipulation.