Idaho's COVID-19 Ground Zero: ISU-Meridian
The first person to contract COVID-19 in the state of Idaho was uniquely prepared to respond. Surrounded by both medical and mental health professionals in her family life, career and academic pursuits, Beverly Hines knew what she had to do to protect those around her, minimize the spread of the disease and survive the ordeal herself.
Hines, a second-year student in Idaho State University’s rigorous counseling doctoral program, attended a weeklong psychotherapy conference in early March in New York City and returned to school at ISU-Meridian the following Monday morning. By Tuesday afternoon, she knew she wasn’t feeling well and made certain to sanitize her work area before heading home at the end of the day. As she struggled with fever, fatigue, body aches and cough while at home sick on Wednesday, Hines began receiving emails from other conference attendees warning she had likely been exposed to the coronavirus.
Acting quickly, Hines contacted her primary care provider on Thursday, March 12 and asked to be tested for coronavirus. Although the provider was reluctant at first, a brief explanation about her interaction with ISU-Meridian health care students and clinicians, all of whom serve much of the Treasure Valley, was grounds enough to order the test. “If it had spread, it would have gone straight to the heart of our most vulnerable populations in the Treasure Valley, with all of the student health care workers and faculty clinicians that I interacted with,” Hines explains. “That was something that was an emotional stressor, worrying every day that ‘oh no, am I going to hear that someone who I came in contact with has come down with symptoms?’ So far that we know, no one that I came into contact with exhibited symptoms,” she adds.
That Thursday evening, Dr. Patricia Marincic, associate vice president of health sciences for ISU-Meridian was alerted by Dr. Elizabeth Horn, professor and community clinical partnership liaison for ISU’s Department of Counseling, that a student had symptoms of coronavirus and had a test pending. Marincic later learned that student, Hines, had attended the conference in New York City and had been exposed to attendees with laboratory confirmed COVID-19. “Given the recent travel to an area of high incidence and the international nature of the conference, along with symptoms, I had a high level of suspicion that we were looking at the first case, the index case, of COVID-19 for the state of Idaho,” Marincic explains.
Marincic reached out to Russell Duke, district director for Central District Health in Boise, who was already aware of the pending test results and who had preemptively notified Idaho Governor Brad Little. Marincic says, “While it was not required to close campus, but out of an abundance of caution, not knowing at that time if there was greater exposure in the Meridian Health Science Center community and the need to ensure that all areas had been cleaned to CDC recommended standards, the Meridian campus closed for the day.” The positive COVID-19 test was confirmed on the afternoon of Friday, March 13.
The next few weeks proved difficult for Hines and her husband Alan, who had attended the conference with her and also contracted the disease. They stayed in their home for 14 days, unable to see their children and participating in intense contact tracing efforts with the health department to determine every person they came in contact with. She recalls their efforts to manage physical symptoms of extreme fatigue, fever, cough, diarrhea, loss of smell and appetite paired with emotional symptoms of embarrassment, shame, guilt, anxiety, and vulnerability.
All in all, Hines says the support she received from her husband, faith community, ISU students and administrators, and her own training and experience as a counselor helped see her through to recovery. She is grateful for friends who let her son stay with them during her time in quarantine and brought her groceries and other items. She praises her ISU advisor, Dr. Horn, and ISU-Meridian Counseling Clinic Director, Dr. Logan Lamprecht for reaching out to provide many of their meals and for offering an equal amount of emotional support. She is especially thankful to have had the ability to continue seeing her own counselor via telehealth. “You really do need other people,” she says. “This experience was stressful, so I made sure that I continued my counseling. As a counselor, I knew how helpful counseling can be. That’s probably the biggest thing, I made sure that I got the emotional support that I needed.”
Marincic agrees. “Both the professionalism and personal touch of our ISU counseling students, faculty and staff was exemplified throughout this case. I commend Beverly for coming forward in March, a time of great uncertainty at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and appreciate her bravery in sharing her story now. I am further gratified by her kind words regarding what we know as our “Meridian Family,” of which Beverly and all our students will forever be a part,” she adds.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ISU’s Counseling Clinics at both Pocatello and Meridian quickly transitioned to offer telehealth services for their clients, and will continue to offer the service permanently. Learn more about this service at https://isu.edu/healthsciences/news/2020/telehealth-counseling-at-isu/
Looking beyond her COVID-19 experience, Hines hopes to become a university counseling professor one day, and enjoys mentoring and supervising other students in the ISU counseling programs. She says that even though the doctoral program is incredibly demanding and intensive, her favorite part has been the opportunity to watch other students grow and succeed in their own journeys.
Hines explains, “Now that my children are adults, in this next stage of life, I hope my legacy is one of being an effective teacher, mentor and supervisor for masters students who are becoming counselors and to professionals who are wanting to continue to develop their skills post-graduation. When you’re a teacher or supervisor and you’re watching student counselors interact with four or five clients, and helping them as they develop their skills to hopefully make a positive difference in other people’s lives, there’s something really exciting about that.”
