Tracking and interviewing clients at risk for HIV and substance abuse in aLatino community

Latino Family Services' (LFS) Outreach and Pre-Treatment Program (OPT) has a mission to increase access of high-risk individuals to substance abuse tr eatment and HIV/AIDS and related services, and to decrease high-risk behavi ors related to HIV/AIDS, TB and/or substance abuse. This mission is address ed through three program components: (1) outreach to high-risk individuals; (2) assessment and referral to needed services; and (3) facilitation of su bstance abuse pre-treatment didactic and support groups. Part of the OPT's evaluation involved tracking and interviewing clients three and six months after the intake assessment. This paper discusses methodological challenges faced by the evaluator in longitudinal tracking and interviewing a bicultu ral high-risk population. Recognizing the diversity of the target client po pulation, we developed a culturally sensitive approach to tracking and inte rviewing Hispanic clients. This included: locating a bilingual/bicultural r esearch interviewer; translating the questionnaire into Spanish; conducting the interviews in Spanish when preferred by the client; identifying effect ive incentives for participants; and tracking clients in a culturally-sensi tive manner. We also describe the approach taken to maintain the methodolog ical rigor of the evaluation. This included: maintaining the objectivity of the interviewer; maintaining the independence of the research interviewer from job roles of program staff; and protecting client confidentiality. Fin ally, the problems associated with tracking and following-up with this high risk client group are described, as well as the outcomes of such efforts. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.