Highlands program recruits high schoolers to be fill social workers gap

Mar. 7—ALBUQUERQUE — Felina Peganse was ready to go by 5 a.m.

As her classmates at Ruidoso High School settled into their first-period classes Thursday morning, Peganse, a 17-year-old junior, had already completed the hourslong trip to Albuquerque.

Alongside dozens of other high schoolers from across the state, she spent the day being schooled in the fundamentals of social work during a one-day training hosted by New Mexico Highlands University's Facundo Valdez School of Social Work.

Peganse said she isn't certain if she wants to become a social worker and came to learn more.

"I really don't know what I want to do with my life," Peganse said. "So I said, 'Yeah, let's check it out. This might be for me.' "

New Mexico doesn't have enough social workers, and the event was designed to give interested students an opportunity to explore careers — and degrees — in social work in the hope they will help to fill that gap, said Melissa Riley, director of the Native American Social Work Studies Institute at New Mexico Highlands University's school of social work.

In a November 2022 report to the Legislative Health and Human Services Committee, New Mexico's Social Work Workforce Task Force sounded alarm bells, warning of a crisis in the industry and a "stark shortage" of social workers "across all fields of practice," including the behavioral health, legal, education and child welfare sectors.

The problem persists, fueled by low wages, towering caseloads and working conditions that lack the support social workers need to be effective, said César Abarca, dean of Highlands' social work school.

Adept social workers are especially hard to find in New Mexico's Indigenous communities, added Riley, who is a member of the Mescalero Apache Tribe.

Highlands' Native American Social Work Studies Institute was created in response to resolutions passed in 2017 by the All Pueblo Council of Governors and the Navajo Nation, supportive of a social work training program designed to meet the needs of Native American populations, much like Highlands' existing bilingual-bicultural program is intended to address social work needs in Hispanic and Latino communities.

Since 2019, the Legislature has offered up hundreds of millions of dollars — including $235 million in this year's state spending bill — to start and support the institute.

"We knew that policy here in New Mexico needed to be enhanced and/or established to better respond to the needs of tribes, the needs of urban Indian populations and just families in general," Riley said.

Now, Highlands' school of social work and the institute are trying to tackle a massive question, Abarca said: "How do we encourage folks to get into the profession but how do also we keep those who are already in the profession without being burnt out?"

Getting high schoolers interested in the field is one part of that work.

During one training session, Sara Hurtado, field education coordinator at Highlands' school of social work, ran down a list essential skills for social workers: active listening, communication, empathy, boundary-setting, critical thinking, time-management advocacy and cultural awareness.

The skills felt relevant for high school students who already know they're interested in social work.

"I'm really interested in social work, especially having to do with disabled people, and it was interesting to me to hear more about the wide range and scope of social work and how it's included in communities," said Nora Lax, a Santa Fe High School junior who joined the training.

The skills are also applicable to those with other career goals in mind. Shea Novak, also a junior at Santa Fe High, said she could see herself using the same skill set while working the medical field since, like social workers, doctors assess and build relationships with patients in a very short period of time.

Peganse, a member of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, said she sees social workers as particularly important in Indigenous communities.

Native Americans are still experiencing the generational effects of policies — like Indian boarding schools — that removed youth from their families, she noted. Indigenous people still go missing at rates much higher than national averages.

As a social worker or in another line of work, Peganse said, she hopes to help "break that chain."

"I want to be a voice for my Native American people," she said.