A Health Educator’s Story: “It’s just dinner.”

By Olivia Ellison

I work as a health educator for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health in the Substance Abuse Prevention and Control department. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, I helped design and implement the Wellbeing Center pilot program, placed in 50 Los Angeles County public high schools. As part of this program, I educated and provided resources to students on sexual health, mental health and substance use, with the help of our partners Planned Parenthood and the LA County Department of Mental Health.

On April 1, our staff of 80 health educators was reassigned and activated to assist in the COVID-19 response for LA County. We were trained to contact patients, present their positive results, ask for demographic information and then delve into what their COVID-19 symptoms were and refer them to local support resources as needed. We were given two days training and initially provided scripts before commencing on our new assignment.

I have spoken to hundreds of patients. In one conversation, I spoke with a woman who had just taken her father off of life support. In another, I talked with a young adult who had no COVID-19 symptoms but had been tested proactively to ensure the safety of his grandparents on an upcoming trip. His decision to be tested and his positive result caused him to cancel his trip, and may have spared his grandparents’ lives.

While the majority of my calls are not as emotional as some of my colleagues are experiencing, one in particular was the most difficult call I have had to make so far. On a morning in April, I sat down with my laptop and a cup of coffee and started my calls for the day. My first call was to a person in their 50s. This person told me that at the beginning of March, their multi-generational family gathered together for a dinner celebration. They regularly gathered together to eat and celebrate special occasions. At this particular dinner, one of the family members showed up with what they thought was a cold or seasonal allergy. The “allergy” turned out to be COVID-19. When I spoke to this person, it was nearly a month after their dinner celebration. This individual had tested positive, and the grandparents of this family were both in the ICU fighting for their lives. In total, at least seven of the thirteen family members tested positive, simply because they sat down to share a meal.

After 45 minutes of this vividly detailed interview, they asked me to pray for their family. I wrote down this person’s mother’s name on my ongoing prayer list and thanked them for their time.

My heart broke that day as the family member said, “it was just dinner.”

I continue to make COVID-19 response calls, and I am currently mentoring new colleagues who are performing this important work.

Olivia Ellison, MPH, is a health educator for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. She graduated with her Master in Public Health degree from the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health in December 2019.