Josh Owens, MBA, LCSW, CMAC, CCM, ACM, VHAN Director, Post-Acute Care, didn't get a lot of time to ease into his new job. After starting with VHAN in July, he led the social work team in real-time crisis counseling and support for Smile Direct Club following the Tuesday, Aug. 3 shooting at one of their facilities.
Though this was the social work team’s first experience of responding to such an event off the Vanderbilt campus, they went right to work with Smile Direct to determine needs and assemble a response group. Vanderbilt’s partnership with Nashville Predators prompted the hockey organization to loan space in the Ford Ice Center in Antioch so that Smile Direct employees could gather there and talk, have refreshments, and go to private areas for counseling. The team set up its onsite counseling center at the site from Wednesday to Saturday, and continues to be a resource for Smile Direct employees.
After debriefing the situation with everyone who asked for counseling, Josh and his colleagues attended to any immediate needs, particularly as individuals started returning to work.
“We held space for them to talk about what they wanted to talk about,” Owens explains. “The sessions were largely about allowing them to express their emotions over what had happened. Then we worked on processing some of those initial emotions and reactions and teaching them different coping strategies.”
Most of the VHAN Social Work Team had not seen each other after working from home telephonically since the pandemic began in March 2020. “I had never met my team in person, so this gave us an opportunity to work side by side helping people,” Owens says.
Owens reports that the Smile Direct team was appreciative of the support. “They were so grateful for the opportunity to be able to talk about their experience,” he says. “There's a lot of therapeutic benefit to just allowing someone to tell their story.”
Owens is thankful that his small team of four was supported by Anne O’Halloran, VPH Director of Social Work & Therapeutic Services, and her team, as well as Donna Skupien, Senior Director, Solution Design and Business Development, Employer Solutions. Skupien connected the VHAN Social Work Team to Smile Direct, and as Owens says, “She was on the ground with us every single day and made it all happen.”