COVINGTON, Ky. — Addiction is a war Kentucky has been fighting for many years, and now in Northern Kentucky, an unprecedented amount of resources to help those suffering from addiction are under one roof.

The people in charge say they hope it will help turn the tide, and one client says he’s proof it’s possible.

It’s been a long journey for Darren Mosley, and the Journey Recovery Center has been a key part of it.

“It’s helped me to love myself again so that I’m able to look at the world and be able to help the world the best way I can,” Mosley said.

That hasn’t been the case many times in his life. “I grew up in kind of a rough home,” Mosley said.

He started drinking at 12 years old, and at 13, got into drugs.

“As I grew up it just got worse and worse,” Mosley said. “My whole life has just kind of been wrapped around not making good choices. The only thing I cared about was to control the way I felt. Sometimes drugs and alcohol were what gave me peace and serenity in my life.”

But it only felt that way. Mosely was homeless. He couldn’t keep a job or a relationship.

“I was cut off to the spirit. I was cut off to anybody even trying to help me. I knew the answer and nobody could tell me anything different,” he said.

A breaking point was losing his brother to suicide in 2015. That drove him to treatment and four years of sobriety.

But in the span of two years, he’d lose his mother and sister, and would eventually relapse.

“I kept continuing to chase these external solutions for the internal void,” he said. “I eventually tried to take my life in 2023.”

He knew he needed a different approach.

“And I finally said if I continue chasing what I used to have, I’m not going to get something new in my life,” Mosley said.

This all led him to St. Elizabeth’s Journey Recovery Center and the Life Learning Center.

Journey Recovery looks at the whole spectrum of addiction, using the Hazelden Betty Ford Core 12 treatment model, as explained by Medical Director Dr. Teresa Koeller.

“Oftentimes they’re treated with therapy and medication, but what we try to do is use the therapy and the medication assisted treatment along with a person centered approach, or a whole person approach, where we look at the barriers that keep them from maintaining or achieving recovery,” Koeller explained. “This kind of program, I think, throughout the state, would be an amazing step forward to healing the population of Kentucky.”

Life Learning Center helped Mosley get his life together.

“They build you up mentally, physically and spiritually as you go through the program,” he said.

Now he’s even got a job as a recovery coach.

Recently, the two centers joined forces and are now under one roof in Covington. The new Journey Recovery Center has been in planning since 2019, and will double the size of what was available at the previous location in Edgewood.

“Having it all in one building is like one of the biggest things I’ve seen in recovery in a long time,” Mosley said.

Dr. Koeller said this combination is the first of its kind in Kentucky.

Mosely said he’s confident it will save lives, and he can’t wait to be a part of it.

St. Elizabeth says each year, over 70,000 people die from drug overdose. The Journey Recovery Center offers whole-person treatment and recovery support to an average of 1,500 patients a year.