Via Positiva National Managing                                    Director, Sylvia Barela.                                                      Sylvia is a key leader in New Mexico’s                                               System of care and helps large and small                                         organizations around the country                                                       expand and diversify revenue to achieve                                           sustainability.  Sylvia and her team
                               offer on-going technical assistance and consultation to provider leaders, corporations and regulatory funders.  Sylvia can be reached at Sylvia.Barela@ViaTiva.com or (505) 310-2910.

For Immediate Release!

Via Positiva Introduces the Center for Behavioral Health Innovation (CBHI)! 

Via Positiva Announces Center for Behavioral Health Innovation to Assist Behavioral Health Providers and Systems Navigate Current Emergent Funding Unknowns

Chris Botten and Team of National Experts to Lead Innovation and Strategic

Responses Beginning immediately.

Houston, Texas April 23, 2025 –Via Positiva, a New Mexico Behavioral Health Consulting and Sustainability Company, today announced the opening of the Center for Behavioral Health Innovation (CBHI) under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Christopher Botten to address the urgent uncertainties unfolding within behavioral health right now. “We are so fortunate to have a person of Chris’s fiscal and operational knowledge in our field to lead our national strategic innovative growth and service efforts with the abrupt and unclear changes happening now.  Chris and our team provide expert fiscal and operational navigation, help quantify value and negotiate contracts with both traditional and new funders in an atmosphere of courage, hope, solution and adaptive capacity.  Providers and delivery systems should be developing alternatives and pivot points right now to multiple possible funding scenarios, said Jim Clarkson, President of Via Positiva.  “In this uncertain time, we seek courageous, proactive and solution-focused leaders to join with us, those whose lives teach, mirror, and model a deeply relational approach in ensuring compassionate and culturally responsive mental health and substance use disorder services are readily available and that work—while also wanting to be highly proficient in the fiscal, data-oriented, outcomes driven parts of their companies.  Chris Botten is a rare person with these abilities, and he guides and teaches others accordingly.  He brings a proven large scale track record of financial acumen for forecasting multi-scenario budgets and managing costs. It was our intention to find an enthusiastic, energetic, highly financially skilled and very data savvy person for this position, and in my view, that is exactly who we have found.  I am beyond grateful and incredibly enthused that Chris has joined our seasoned national innovation team,” said Clarkson.     

Chris is surrounded by an unparalleled team of national trauma informed experts to address every pain, challenge and pivot point facing providers and provider systems right now in this uncertain and quickly changing environment:

Clarence Jordan, MBA, National Executive, Peer Support Specialist Services Industry Pioneer and Expert.  Leonard Kincaid, LCDC, LPCC, MBA, CEO, Houston Recovery Center, Recovery and Chronic Disease Management.  Rick Goscha, Ph.D., Founder, Co-author, “Strengths Model Care Management”.  Jim Clarkson, MA, LADAC, Corporate CEO, National Insurance Executive, MAT Expert, Value-based and Evolving Funding Models, Financing, Value Identification, Diversification and Contract Negotiation.  Sylvia Barela, MBA, Treatment Provider CEO, Program Management and Fiscal Positioning and Growth.  Kris Ericson, Ph.D., Public Sector Systems Development and National Policy Expert.  Mike Klaybor, Ph.D., National Corporate EAP Expert and Co-founder of PainShifting.  Reverend Brendalyn Batchelor, LPC, Recovery Friendly Workplace and Spirituality as a Social Determinant of Health.  Tommy Valdez, Chairperson for Certification for Trauma Informed Principles and Practices. 

Prior to CBHI, Chris served as a Senior Associate and Project Manager at the California Institute for Behavioral Health Solutions (CIBHS), where he provided technical assistance to over 80 behavioral health organizations across Los Angeles County. He supported agencies with financial reform, compliance training, DHCS cost reporting, SAPC contracting, and readiness for payment reform directly advancing agency capacity in forecasting, budgeting, audit preparation, and value-based performance tracking.

Chris served as the Director of Operations at the Los Angeles Centers for Alcohol and Drug Abuse (L.A. CADA), one of the largest Drug Medi-Cal providers in Los Angeles County. There, he led cross-functional operations spanning housing, contracts, IT, compliance, and finance—successfully overseeing multi-million-dollar budgets and contributing to major financial growth initiatives.

Chris holds a Bachelor of Science in Business and will complete his Master of Business Administration at California State University, Channel Islands, in May 2025. Chris is a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor combining financial acumen with provider-centered leadership, helping organizations thrive in a changing behavioral health landscape.

Leonard Kincaid, Senior Advisor at CBHI and CEO of Houston Recovery Center points out, “We currently have at our fingertips, the clinical, operational, recovery and chronic disease management and informational technology to effectively address substance use and mental health disorders for long term wellness and recovery when the system is arranged, deployed and coordinated correctly.  It reduces cost and saves lives.  Perhaps the new funding realities will awaken all of us to the solutions that are already working and bring more common sense into the mental health and substance use disorder delivery systems in the country.  I love helping providers and systems do what we have done in Houston and Via Positiva has done in many communities.  The results and supporting data speak for themselves.  This is what CBHI is all about”.

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About Via Positiva Center for Behavioral Health Innovation, LLC      

CBHI is a practice of behavioral health executives and practitioners dedicated to helping substance abuse, mental health and other human service systems and service providers navigate the uncertain healthcare landscape toward becoming fiscally strong, sustainable, integrated, and clinically and culturally excellent.  Our emerging population health focus and care coordination initiative provides technical assistance and training in this critically evolving area in which Chris Botten will be a key leader.  Working with public sector regulatory agencies, insurers, private corporations, and service providers, CBHI focuses on utilizing the most innovative and effective tools and practices while helping to shape and raise the bar nationally on sustainability, growth, accessibility, quality and wellness.  Since 2011 this has been Via Positiva’s mission and vision and CBHI is a response to the need for agile, clear, flexible and courageous solutions to stand strong on the shifting sands of our time.

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Learn More About How CBHI Can Support Your Organization through our no-cost webinar presentation:

“Maximize Revenue & Staffing Power:  A Practical Session to Help Behavioral Health Providers Understand the Importance of Financial Strength and Service Capacity”

Designed for Executive Directors/CEOs, CFOs, COOs, Program Directors/Managers, QA/UM Leads, other Behavioral Health Systems Leaders

Location: Virtual (Zoom) Date: May 13th, 2025, or May 22nd, 2025

Time: 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. PST | 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. MST | 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. CST

Cost: No cost to participants | Implementation & TA services available post-webinar

Register Now → May 13th, 2025:  https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/nJesOBz4QmONrcb5L4Xa0A

Now→ May 22nd, 2025: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/KbyBKYh4QdaYu2SBJ98SXg

Spots are limited.

This will fill quickly. Fiscal Focus in Uncertain Times!

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### Media Contact:

Jim Clarkson, President, at Jim.Clarkson@ViaTiva.com

505-944-5284

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This is a time of transition and challenge for most behavioral health agencies and their leaders due to healthcare payment evolution, changing managed care criteria, contracting expectations, and integration.  Our team includes highly successful former CEOs and managed care executives to help solidify and enhance your strategic plan in a highly supportive, judgment free way through agency technical assistance and executive coaching.