LEXINGTON, Ky. — Coritta Roberts-Chadwell started a faith-based treatment center, Perfect Imperfections, four years ago after seeing her mother, Rovena Hayden, struggle with substance use disorder throughout her life. Hayden was the first person to graduate from the program, and the center has since expanded into Richmond.
At the young age of 14, Hayden was introduced to alcohol and marijuana.
“And then later on it graduated to the other stuff, cocaine,” Hayden said.
She would struggle with substance use disorder for decades.
“I didn’t really start getting clean ‘til I was 60 years old,” Hayden said.
Roberts-Chadwell remembers a difficult upbringing.
“All my other friends in school, they have their moms coming to school and baking cookies and my mother was never one to do that,” Roberts-Chadwell said. “She was locked up in KCIW (Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women), Pewee Valley, for many, many years. There or mental institutions or rehab facilities that she would go in and out of.”
When Hayden realized she was struggling with addiction, she had a conversation with her daughter.
“The first time that I told my daughter, and she was like, ‘No. You’re not an addict.’ I was like, ‘Yes I am.’ I said, ‘Get the dictionary and look up what it is.’ I said, ‘That’s who I am and I need help,’” Hayden said.
“I was just like, ‘Well my goodness… you are a drug addict. Everything that it said is exactly who you are and what you do and how you act,’” Roberts-Chadwell said.
This conversation prompted Roberts-Chadwell to partner with her boss, Dan Wacks, to open Perfect Imperfections in Aug. 2020.
“We are a substance use treatment facility,” Roberts-Chadwell said. “We want to be the last treatment facility that you have to come to. We also offer supportive recovery housing. We do charge a monthly fee for that... We do offer peer support, we offer individual counseling, group counseling, targeted case management, mental health as well.”
Couples can also enter the program together. They’ll be in separate groups but can live in the same residence.
“What they do there is educate you on the disease of addiction,” Hayden said. “I never knew that there was a solution.”
Between the treatment center’s two locations in Lexington and Richmond, there are currently about 130 clients going through the program.
“My mother was our first graduate of our program,” Roberts-Chadwell said. “She began the day that we opened up our first door. She was the first client to walk through the door.”
The program has proven to be successful with dozens of people, including Nathan Thomas, who now works at the center.
“They showed how much they care, you know,” Thomas said. “I’ve never walked into a place where people love you when you walk in the door, they show you love, they care if you survive or not. So it’s a great thing.”
Through classes and sessions, Hayden learned about substance use disorder which has helped her stay in recovery. She is grateful for her daughter.
“I don’t know how I could ever repay her ‘cause I probably wouldn’t be sitting here right now if she never wanted to help me and never started Perfect Imperfections and I get goosebumps because I know that that’s her calling,” Hayden said.
With a recent job opening at Perfect Imperfections, Hayden is now back at the center working with her daughter.