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AUGUST 1, 2021
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Dickie was inspired to open his own addiction recovery center
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facilities. This has been no small
task, especially with the COVID-19
pandemic raging during 2020.
“It’s very difficult to make this
milestone as a new business,” he
says. “We are humbled and honored
to still be serving this population.”
Natural State Recovery Centers
includes a three-step system –
unique to the area – to treat sub-
stance abuse ranging from opioids
to alcohol.
When Dickie was in the depths
of his alcohol dependency, he never
dreamed of running treatment cen-
ters someday. He thought sobriety
was boring and literally felt like
crawling out of his own skin when
not drinking.
When he first sought help while
still living in Oregon, Dickie uti-
lized 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. For me,
getting sober was a lot of slow steps
over time. I tried for six years, but
there was a lot of hard-headedness
and I wasn’t willing to take sugges-
tions all of the way yet.”
After landing on his grand-
mother’s couch in Batesville, Ark.,
with nothing but a suitcase and a
GED, Dickie was finally ready to
commit to recovery. He enrolled in
the University of Arkansas Commu-
nity College and earned a two-year
degree. He went on to Lyon College
and received his bachelor’s and now
holds a master’s from Arkansas
Tech University. He is a doctoral
student in the adult and lifelong
learning program at the University
of Arkansas, and has said he owes
his success to the transformative
Photo contributed by Christopher Dickie
Tribal member and Natural State Recovery Centers Chief Executive Officer
Christopher Dickie, second from right, has been sober for 14 years. Now, he
and his staff help others who want to break the cycle of addiction.
process of education.
Dickie was inspired to open his
own addiction recovery center after
working with high-risk adults and
youth trying to navigate the often
complicated maze of treatment
options. People who needed help
weren’t getting it because there
were no local options. So, he began
researching ways to fill in the gaps.
The tipping point came after a
colleague’s son was battling heroin
addiction. Although she had access
to resources many in the area did
not, she still struggled to find help
for her son.
This, combined with his own
experience going to an inpatient
treatment center, motivated Dickie
to base the structure of Natural
State Recovery Centers on different
models he saw across the country
as well as his personal experiences.
36 years and counting
Photo by Timothy J. Gonzalez
Tribal member Veronica Gaston displays her 36th sobriety coin in her
Grand Ronde home on Wednesday, July 7. She received the coin in May.
She says she is looking forward to collecting her 40th and 50th sobriety
coins in the future. During the long months of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Gaston said that gardening, her cats, crocheting projects and journaling
helped her stay on the path of sobriety. “One thing I did was to find my
happy place,” she said. “Find a project you love to do. My garden has
helped me a lot.”
In 2019, Natural State branched
out and bought a 27-acre former
high school campus near Little
Rock and converted it into a detox
and residential treatment center
complete with a gym, track and
dog kennel for clients who are
interested in animal therapy as a
component of recovery.
The campus also includes edu-
cational programming, yoga, med-
itation, wellness coaching, peer
support, counseling, and music
and art therapy. That same year,
Natural State was named provider
of the year by the Peer Recovery
Conference in Arkansas.
There are different levels of inpa-
tient and outpatient care at Natu-
ral State depending on client needs.
Treatment is a three-tiered process
that spans 90 days minimum and
is designed to help keep the person
focused on recovery. The tiers are
clinical treatment, sober living and
life skills training.
“Thirty days of treatment isn’t
enough,” Dickie says. “Arkansas
has been fragmented in its offer-
ings for someone seeking relief
from addiction. You can find detox,
but then it’s a burden on families
or loved ones because they have to
take that person from detox and
have to find the next level of care.
With us, you can go from detox
to residential to outpatient with
the same facility. … We also have
people with lived experience on the
staff so they know how to relate
to the clients and can help them
work through these things that
are uncomfortable. We want to be
here for generations to come and
create an environment that is sus-
tainable. Building for the future is
our vision and part of long-term
goals, to be in other parts of the
state and the country. We believe
in what we are doing.”
During the COVID-19 pan-
demic, Natural State was closed
to in-person treatment for a few
weeks before reopening. Dickie
said he and the staff realized the
danger of relapse and overdose
deaths far outweighed the risk of
contracting COVID-19, especially
if Centers for Disease Control pro-
tocols, such as social distancing,
hand washing and mask wearing,
were followed.
“Overdose deaths are up close to
30 percent in 2020 across the coun-
try. Also, there are probably more
than 20 million people in long-term
recovery,” Dickie says. “When a
person has to isolate themselves,
addiction thrives. Add that to the
struggle of losing jobs and being at
home alone, and you can imagine
all of the people who are suffering.
We have seen too many who have
fallen off into oblivion and we knew
that was what we were up against.”
A year after the pandemic began,
Natural State had its first and only
COVID case. By keeping the client
isolated in their room, it didn’t
spread.
“Our clients were very grateful
we stayed open because not a lot of
people did that,” Dickie says. “You
have to do what you have to do, but
telemedicine is not the same.”
During the pandemic, Dickie
said a man who had been a part of
the program in the past relapsed.
He called Natural State and told
them he was planning to go to an-
other program and had an intake
appointment scheduled. Tragically,
he overdosed and died before going
in. Dickie attended his funeral.
“I had taken him to a football
game and helped him with his re-
sume,” he says. “He had a plan for
the future. When he died, that was
something that was right in our
house and ripples out to the larger
community. It’s happening all over
the country. We have to keep our
heads down, focus on the people
reaching out to us and continue to
do the work. The opposite of addic-
tion is connection.”
As far as potential technological
solutions such as a smartphone
app to help those struggling with
addiction in isolation, Dickie feels
technology can help but is not ap-
plicable in all situations, particu-
larly in rural areas like Arkansas.
Broadband access can be spotty and
people often lack the resources or
desire to use technological addic-
tion therapies because most prefer
relational connections, Dickey
adds.
He says one of the core values
of his business, which comes from
learned experience, is to be cen-
tered on customer relations.
“Great organizations have a good
first encounter,” he says. “We want
to welcome people here and remove
barriers to getting enrolled in treat-
ment. If your house is on fire, we
wouldn’t tell someone it would take
three days to get water out there.
This is also an emergency.”
Dickie urges Tribal members
who think they aren’t employable
because of arrests or lack of edu-
cation to remember his story and
know that if they’re willing to try,
they can be successful at recovery
even if it takes more than a few
attempts. Soon, he hopes to be able
to offer services at his facilities to
Tribal members.
“Right now we’re working with
the Tribe to be able to accept in-
surance and then we’ll be able to
work with Tribal members,” Dickie
says. “We’ll get you ready to meet
whatever demands are waiting
back home.”