Dana Holley '78 M.S.W.

Idealistic in a Darwinian world: helping clients help themselves

Dana Holley says she doesn't consider herself particularly charismatic, but she acknowledges that she is "persistent to the point of tenaciousness" when it comes to righting a wrong.

"I continue to be idealistic in an increasingly Darwinian world," says Holley. The clients suffering from chronic psychiatric illness at McLean Hospital's Waverley Place, where Holley is program manager, appreciate her optimism.

Holley started at the SSW in 1976, attending full time while caring for her two grade school children. "I chose Simmons because I felt it would give me a high quality advanced clinical degree. It turned out to be the best decision I ever made."

Holley says Simmons "politicized" her. "My worldview broadened from an interest in individuals to the concept of 'the person in the environment.' I woke up to issues of social, political, and economic justice. This focus has directed the course of my career. After 25 years in community mental health, working with those most marginalized by society, I am currently managing an innovative program in which a community of clients, peer counselors, and professional staff develop and run the program together."

Even after all these years, Holley says her SSW degree continues to pay off. "The education I received at Simmons gave me a framework for a lifetime of learning about people from a bio-psycho-social perspective. The social work body of knowledge and skills is based on fundamentals that persist over changing times. I am at only my second job since I graduated in 1978. I worked at Somerville Mental Health Clinic in several different capacities for 23 years and left to help start Waverley Place. My experience at Simmons prepared me to grow into leadership and administrative positions developing programs that provide systems of care and focus on strengths and empowerment."

What keeps Holley motivated after all these years working in mental health is part personality and part opportunity. "It's not a possibility for me to stop trying to make at least some small difference," she says. "And there's still so much work to be done. A major change in health care today has been the privatization of services, which has created more competition and less coordination and cooperation among service providers. Publicly funded services are targeted to a smaller group of the most disabled and impoverished, while private providers avoid the costliest patients, leaving in the middle a group with inadequate access to mental health services. Decisions about access are increasingly made by non-clinical people."

Holley's hope comes from the rising crop of new social workers. "As I continue to supervise social work interns, I am continually gratified by the high caliber of people entering the profession. Half of all mental health services in the country are provided by social workers. It is important to maintain this resource of well-trained mental health professionals who uphold a client-centered and system-based perspective."

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