RAMIREZ, Helen. Social worker, children's welfare.

Helen Ramírez Interview. Interviewed by Elizabeth McBroom. Date of interview: 10-11-90. 1 cassette tape (1 duplicate tape). Length of interview: 1.5 hours. Transcript of interview: 35 pp.

Topics of interview: Early interest in social welfare; education and work at School of Social Work, USC; work with Fresno County Department of Public Welfare; LA County Dept. of Adoptions; establishing ethnic identity of Hispanic children; changes in LA County Dept. of Adoptions, now Dept. of Children's Services; open adoptions; road blocks to adoption of minority children; Public Law 96-272; support for families after adoption; single parent adoptions; changes in family structures and adoption; "developmentally disabled children" and adoption; bilingual/bicultural unit; future needs of adoption services; approaches to working with "drug-impacted" children; relationship between adopted child and adopted family, and birth family; review of changes in adoption; opposition to open adoptions; adoptions of children into families with different ethnicity; adoption of children with AIDS; foster parents and adoption; volume of placement of children; independent adoption; merger of LA County Dept. of Adoptions with Children's Services of Dept. of Public Social Services to create Dept. of Children's Services; development of innovative programs and resources re work with Bureau of Community Resources; service on board of Family Services Association of America; honors; achievements as pioneering woman; service on state task forces; changes in practice of social work; impact of budget cutbacks.

Additional Materials:

1. 1 diskette of transcript of interview.