Fighting addiction: South Dakota nurse spent years administering treatment

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – When Carol Regier agreed to help set up the nursing station at the Keystone Treatment Center, she figured it would be a temporary assignment.

Regier was an operating room nurse at Sioux Valley Hospital, but she agreed to help her husband, Gene, who was the medical director at the newly established addiction treatment center in Canton, South Dakota, and a founding board member.

What she thought would be a few weeks is now ending after 48 years.

The Regiers are retiring from Keystone. Together, they have seen a combined 96 years of the triumphs and tragedies related to addiction and treatment. Carol Regier served 30 of her 48 years as the CEO and executive director at Keystone.

“I set up the nurses’ station and never left,” she said.

Much has changed over those years, but addiction has been the constant.

The facility started with about 30 beds. Today, it has 126, as well as outpatient programs, that treat addictions to alcohol and drugs. In 2002, a new adolescent unit was named after Carol.

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'We are three-part beings... and all three get sick'

In the early years, Keystone’s founders worked with the state to try to get insurance coverage for addiction treatment.

“People did not want to look at it as a disease of the brain,” said Regier, who turned 82 this month. “They looked at it as bad behavior.”

Regier went on to supplement her nursing background by becoming a chemical dependency counselor through the University of South Dakota.

Besides alcohol, various drug addictions have seen rises and falls over the decades.

“They can all be different,” she said. “Methamphetamine is tough, because they go through a period where they are almost psychotic during their withdrawal.”

After voters legalized video lottery, Keystone saw an increase in gambling additions. Prior to video lottery, gambling addictions were more uncommon: Maybe somebody who got addicted playing poker or the dogs at the track in Sioux City. Gambling addictions are harder to identify because people aren’t inebriated. But regardless of the addiction, people are hit hard.

“By the time people come to us, they are having difficulties in life,” she said.

Regier has also noticed over the years that people with gambling addictions will often get a subsequent substance addiction, which reinforces the idea that addiction is a disease of the brain.

Matt Walz, a public policy strategist and Keystone employee, said people in treatment will often relapse, but he likened treatment to people who quit smoking. It often takes multiple attempts before somebody is successful.

A big part of Keystone’s treatment relies on a spiritual component, Regier said. People need to have a power that is bigger than themselves when they are grappling with an addiction.

"We are three-part beings: mental, physical and spiritual, and all three get sick," she said. 

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'You don’t have to stay in that life'

When they haven't been helping people overcome addiction, the Regiers have enjoyed collecting antiques. Both are also champion anglers, having earned the South Dakota Proud Angler Award for catching largemouth bass.

Both are hoping to get more fishing into their retirement routine. 

In 2009, Carol Regier was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame. The couple have two children. She’s looking forward to spending time with her family, including grandchildren, at a lake house.

But she’s also looking forward to Keystone’s next alumni gathering. Phyllis Bauerle, Keystone’s director of outpatient clinical services, said the facility sees hundreds of clients and their families return each year for Keystone’s alumni gathering in August.

For Carol Regier, it’s a chance to reflect on the people who have been helped at Keystone. She still remembers her first patient, who never used alcohol again and lived 40 more years. The center’s first adolescent client went on to become a successful lawyer.

“There will probably always be abuse,” she said. “Our message is, you don’t have to stay in that life.”

Follow Jonathan Ellis on Twitter: @argusjellis.