8
S moke S ignals
AUGUST 15, 2018
Tribal member opens addiction recovery center
Christopher Dickie
fighting substance
abuse in Arkansas
By Danielle Frost
Smoke Signals staff writer
Grand Ronde Tribal member
Christopher Dickie moved from Or-
egon to Arkansas to escape troubles
caused by alcohol addiction and to
restore his life.
Today, the 36-year-old is 11 years
sober and opened Natural State
Recovery Centers in Little Rock,
Ark., in June. It includes a three-
step system – unique to the area
– to treat substance abuse ranging
from opioids to alcohol.
“For me, getting sober was a lot
of slow steps over time,” Dickie
says. “I tried for six years, but there
was a lot of hard-headedness and I
wasn’t willing to take suggestions
all of the way yet.”
When Dickie first sought help,
he utilized the Tribe’s Behavioral
Health program.
“I have a lot of gratitude for that
program,” he says. “It got me start-
ed in the right direction. I made
lots of progress, but I wasn’t ready
yet to take those suggestions all of
the way.”
However, the road to recovery is
seldom straight and narrow, and
Dickie experienced all of the bumps
and detours to get there.
“When I moved to Arkansas, I was
finally ready
to change,” he
says.
Today, he
is married
to wife Tara
and they have
a 6-year-old
daughter,
Adelynn.
A r m e d
Christopher Dickie
with a GED
he earned utilizing the Tribe’s
educational assistance programs,
Dickie enrolled in the University of
Arkansas Community College and
earned a two-year degree. He went
on to Lyon College and received
a bachelor’s degree and holds a
master’s from Arkansas Tech Uni-
versity. He is currently working on
his doctorate.
But of all of those degrees, the
first one means the most to Dickie.
“It is the most important because
it is the one I didn’t think I could
get,” he says. “I had a .75 GPA in
high school and was voted most
likely to end up on ‘Cops.’ In college
I was voted to be student govern-
ment president.”
With a background in education,
Dickie was working with several
high-risk adults and youth, but
there was a part of him that was
not completely fulfilled. Ultimately,
three major factors led him to open
his own recovery center.
“My own experience going to an
inpatient treatment center and
then straight to my mom’s house
Name changes in court
Tribal Court provides both minor and adult name changes to enrolled
members for a filing fee of only $30. If you have any questions or would
like to request a packet, contact Tribal Court at 503-879-2303.
Support Available for
Children and Adults with
Developmental Disabilities
Please join us for a FREE DINNER and information
on FREE RESOURCES available to local families.
Learn about:
Regional Family Network Special Education Advocacy
Developmental Disability Services
Recruiting & Employing Personal Support Workers
Tuesday, August 28 th
5:00-7:30 PM
Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
Tribal Community Center
9615 Grand Ronde Road, Grand Ronde OR
Register at www. creatingops.org | 503-559-0424
was a disaster,” Dickie says. “The
second piece was I started serving
on a recovery foundation board.
People who needed help weren’t
getting it because there weren’t
any locally based options. I started
looking at what I could do to fill the
gaps.”
The tipping point came when a
female colleague’s son was battling
heroin addiction.
“It just completely blindsid-
ed their family,” Dickie says. “I
thought she was someone who had
access to a lot of resources and
there wasn’t a lot of help for her to
navigate getting access to the kind
of treatment he needed.”
One day, Dickie woke up and all
of his motivation had shifted from
becoming president of a college to
opening his own treatment center.
“There are a lot of state-funded
programs that work with correc-
tions and the homeless, but noth-
ing that works with middle-class
people facing addictions,” he says.
So, Dickie based the structure of
Natural State Recovery Centers
on different models he saw across
the country, as well as his personal
experiences.
Treatment is a three-tiered pro-
cess that spans 90 days and is de-
signed to help keep the person on a
recovery track. Both inpatient and
outpatient options are available.
These are clinical treatment, sober
living and life skills training.
Clinical treatment includes a par-
tial hospitalization program and an
intensive outpatient program. For
those choosing the sober living op-
tion, it includes collaboration with
a 12-step program and round-the-
clock access to staff. The life skills
training program includes career
development, college exploration,
financial literacy and community
engagement.
“All three aspects working togeth-
er really make an impact,” Dickie
says. “It sets us apart and fills a gap
within the recovery process.”
Dickie says he is hoping to help
Indian Country with recovery ser-
vices when he opens a new facility
in northern Arkansas near the
Oklahoma border.
“We want to help the Tribal na-
tion as a whole,” he says. “Right
now treatment is so lacking. A lot
of people have to go out of state to
get any type of services.”
The name of Dickie’s recovery
center has a double meaning. “The
Natural State” is the slogan for
Arkansas and also has significance
in step two of the 12-step program,
which is believing that a power
greater than yourself can help
restore you to a natural condition.
“We want to inspire people
through hope to get them back on
the right track,” Dickie says. “We
are seeking to serve two popula-
tions. We are exposing people to a
different type of lifestyle than they
had before. … We also deal with a
lot of professionals too, and they
are not downgrading their lifestyle
to come here.”
Dickie’s Tribal heritage comes
from his mother, Andrea LaChance
Singleton.
He says he owes a “debt of grat-
itude” to the Tribal programs and
people that helped him thrive as
an adult.
“I wouldn’t be where I am today,”
he says. “These programs changed
my whole life … and I got started
with my journey in Grand Ronde.
They took a chance on me even
though I was arrested 14 times in
one year and had 25 different jobs. I
don’t know what to do to say ‘Thank
you’ except to pass it on and help
others.”
For more information about Nat-
ural State Recovery Centers, visit
www.naturalstaterecovery.com.