Is it too early to say Happy Fall? Happy September, everyone! While summer is coming to an end, things here at Forge and KPC are far from cooling down. This month, and for the second year in a row, Forge was honored to be included on this year's Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies!

Inc. magazine’s annual Inc. 5000 list is the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy’s most dynamic segment—its independent small businesses. Facebook, Microsoft, Intuit, Zappos, Under Armour, Patagonia, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000. 

As always, the experience we deliver in our clinics or via teletherapy, the strength and quality of our clinical programming, and the primary reason for our current and future success remains all because of YOU. We’re so proud of where we are, honored to be working alongside you, and excited to continue working tirelessly together to challenge traditional industry thinking to increase access, lower costs, and improve quality.

Please see below for our social media posts for this announcement. Please feel free to share with your personal and/or professional network! The full press release is included further down in the newsletter.

Press release

Blog post

Facebook post

LinkedIn post

And with that, let's get to it!

Janice Descarreaux

Office Manager

Devens, MA

Salman Abouzied

Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner

West Orange, NJ

Martisha Kanard-Dwyer

Clinician

West Orange, NJ

Carina Camporeale

Clinician

Paramus, NJ

Sean Kilbreth

Community Engagement and

Experience Coordinator

New Hampshire

Samuel Formanek

Clinician

White Plain, NY

Chaya Aspir

Clinician

White Plains, NY

Claudine Rene

Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner

West Orange, NJ

Leighton Bailey

Intake and Experience Coordinator

ACE, Corporate

Dalton McLaughlin

Manager, Government Relations

His 2 year Anniversary is Sept. 1st!

Paul Belle Isle

Chief Marketing Officer

His 1 year Anniversary is Sept. 13th!

Margie Rodriguez

KPC Syosset, Administrative

Her 15 year Anniversary is Sept. 18th!

Taylor Gaton

Clinician

Her 1 year Anniversary is Sept. 20th!

🎉Celebrating our September staff birthdays!🎉

Happy Birthday!

Janet Bamgbade - September 7th

Liz Walker - September 10th

Salman Abouzied - September 14th

Mike Cohen - September 17th

Jamila Pough - September 17th

Charnele Brown - September 17th

Benji Knafo - September 20th

Sue Brown - September 21st

Tina Cabrera - September 23rd

Janae Lane - September 24th

Candice Alizio - September 30th

Sydney Stennett

This month we are highlighting Sydney Stennett, one of our amazing clinicians in Greensburg! Sydney passed her LCSW exam in August and we couldn't be prouder. Sydney started with Forge as an intern and has been an integral part of the team since. Pictured below is Sydney attending her combined LCSW party + birthday party at the Greensburg facility. Congratulations, Sydney!

Forge Health Named to the Inc. 5000 List of Fastest-Growing Private Companies for the Second Consecutive Year

Company leaders attribute its 2022 rank of No. 792 to breakthrough clinical results, recognition of Forge Health’s thought leadership in mental health, and unmet demand.

White Plains, NY, August 17, 2022 – Inc. magazine revealed yesterday that Forge Health, a leading provider of value-based mental health and substance use care with a proven, national payor-validated ability to drive clinical outcomes, is No. 792 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. 

The Inc. 5000 provides a unique look at the most successful companies within the U.S. economy’s most dynamic segment - its independent small businesses – and is widely regarded as an indicator of things to come. Many of today’s biggest and most well-known firms – Facebook, Microsoft, Intuit, Zappos, Under Armour, Patagonia, and others - earned their first national exposure as honorees on the list. 

“It's an honor to earn the No. 792 spot on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies,” said Eric Frieman, Co-Founder and CEO of Forge Health. “Making the list for a second consecutive year is a testament to our team’s mission-driven commitment to providing the highest quality, affordable, and effective mental health and substance use care to individuals, families, and communities in need. We’re both excited and humbled to be a two-time Inc. 5000 honoree, but we’re also clear-eyed about the work that still needs to be done to increase access, lower costs, and improve quality in mental health care.”

Founded in 2016, Forge Health is a mission-driven outpatient mental health and substance use treatment provider dedicated to delivering outstanding “one-stop-shop” care to individuals, families, and communities in need, especially those with moderate to severe conditions. The company is in-network with over 30 commercial and government health plans, and through new and expanded population health partnerships with leading health plans and health systems, Forge now manages more than 270,000 members under its value-based partnership model.

Earlier this year, Forge Health released the results of a groundbreaking national payor-led clinical outcomes research study aimed at determining to what degree the Forge Care Model’s intensive outpatient treatment positively impacted patients beyond the treatment period. The study’s results showed that Forge patients maintained significant improvement in both medical utilization and overall health outcomes even a full 12 months after treatment for mental health and substance use. 

In July, the House Committee on Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Health invited company co-founders Frieman and Eric Golnick, CEO of Forge VFR (Forge Health’s Veterans & First Responders program) to provide expert testimony about obstacles to the effective use of community care resources in treating mental health and substance use among veterans. "As our overall business continues to grow, we are steadfast in our mission to care for veterans, first responders, and their families. With this honor, we’ve proven our unique ability to help many more people in need within these populations," said Golnick.

“The accomplishment of building one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S., in light of recent economic roadblocks, cannot be overstated,” says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. “Inc. is thrilled to honor the companies that have established themselves through innovation, hard work, and rising to the challenges of today.”

We had some exciting internal movement this month that we are thrilled to highlight below. 

Marina Pope was promoted to be our newest Executive Clinical Director! Marina will be the ECD of the White Plains, NY facility. We are so excited for her to step into this new role and help continue to build this program out. 

Dalton McLaughlin has started a new position with Forge as Manager, Government Relations. Dalton will be focusing his efforts on driving our government affairs and public policy strategy in order to advance Forge Health’s mission and goals with local, state, and federal elected officials and elevate Forge Health's presence as a public policy thought leader. 

Casey Lancaster, who joined Forge in November in a part-time capacity, has officially joined the team as a full-time employee. We are absolutely thrilled to bring Casey on board as our Policy and Advocacy Analyst. Casey will be working alongside Dalton to drive our strategic initiatives in the government relations space.

Benji Knafo, a man of many hats, has officially stepped into his new role as SVP of Real Estate and Development. Benji will be spearheading our clinic growth for both our existing facilities as well as de novo growth! Joining his team next month will be a brand new Leasing and Facilities Manager to support all clinical maintenance.

Congratulations, everyone! These are well deserved and we know you'll do amazing things!

During this week’s Employee Engagement Survey Results presentation for Forge Health, we announced a handful of exciting HR related announcements that will roll out in both 2022 and 2023. As noted during the meeting, the full policies for these initiatives will be posted to the Intranet next week for full visibility and access. If you have any questions, please reach out to Human Resources. With that, please see below for the announcements:

Employee Referral Bonus Program – Effective immediately, Forge and KPC are launching an Employee Referral Bonus Program. When a Forge or KPC employee refers a candidate to the company who is ultimately hired and joins Forge or KPC, the referring employee will receive an attractive one-time bonus! Good people know good people, and we are a team of great people! You all are our best referral sources and we are so excited to launch this program. Eligibility requirements and stipulations to be posted in the full policy.

Wellness Reimbursement Program – Effective 2023, Forge and KPC are thrilled to implement a Wellness Reimbursement Program. Every full-time Forge Health and KPC employee will receive an annual reimbursement of up to $150 for anything you deem to benefit your physical and/or mental wellbeing, within the parameters of the policy to be posted next week. Think gym memberships, running shoes, yoga mats, you name it!      

Adding and honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Day to our paid company holidays. This is for Forge Health employees.

Two Mental Health/Personal Wellness days added to our PTO package! Alongside our wellness reimbursement program, we are thrilled to announce the addition of these two wellness days to make sure we are all taking care of ourselves. Please note - this is for Forge Health employees. 

This month, our facility level Clinical Directors and a few members on the corporate leadership team got together in Manchester and Devens for a 2-day event to discuss organizational updates, strategic initiatives, and plans for the future. See below for pictures and highlights!

Pictured above from left to right: Eric Frieman, Michael McCann, Candice Alizio, Brian Kephart, Claudia Ragni, Janet Bamgbade, David Duren, Eric Golnick.

The team went to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats baseball game, the minor league farm team for the Toronto Blue Jays. Michael Midgette and Rachel Rodriguez were also in attendance!

An exciting end of summer for the Forge and KPC team! Check out below for some highlights of our employees in the community.

Courteney Bender and Cassy Hartless (pictured left) are two of our amazing Art Therapists In Pennsylvania. Here they are at the Annual Overdose Awareness event hosted by The Westmoreland Drug and Alcohol Commission (WEDAC) at Twin Lakes. They set up a face painting booth - pictured on the right are live action shots of their canvasses!

Megan McDermott and David Oppman representing Forge Health in Paramus at a National Night Out event! National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer, more caring places to live. National Night Out enhances the relationship between neighbors and law enforcement while bringing back a true sense of community. For more information, check out their website here.

On Sunday, August 21, 2022, Claudia Peters Ragni, our ECD of the two Long Island IOP programs facilitated the 2^nd annual fundraiser at East Wind Resort to raise money for Gabriel’s Giving Tree.

This grassroots charity funds the funeral expenses for families that have lost a loved one to accidental overdose and do not have funds for a basic wake & cremation.

$52,569 was raised at this event, 100% of which will go directly to help over a dozen families on Long Island. Named for Gabriel Phillippe, a 15 year old boy who died of a fentanyl overdose on April 22, 2010, GGT has been helping Long Island families for three years. 

In addition to helping these families financially, GGT offers them professional grief counseling and family peer support at absolutely no cost.

GGT convinced Suffolk County to donate land and has built a beautiful park for families to place a memorial to their loved one or simply to visit, rest and reflect. Located at the Seatuck Environmental Center in Islip, Gabe’s park has become a beloved nook for hurting families to heal and memorialize their loved one. 

All maintenance and upkeep is done 100% by volunteers, a few of which, proudly, are KPC alumni. Recovery Rocks.

Last month, Salman Abouzied, one of our newest Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners in New Jersey, successfully completed an IronMan in Canada and is officially an IronMan finisher. Preparation for this sort of an event takes a tremendous amount of discipline, training, and sacrifice. What an absolutely incredible and inspirational accomplishment. Congratulations, Salman – truly amazing!

Our Forge VFR team in the Manchester facility partners with Camp Resilience, whose mission is to leverage the scenic outdoors of the New Hampshire Lakes Region to improve the physical, social, mental, and emotional well-being of Military Service Members, Military Veterans, First Responders, and their Families, on a consistent basis to lead retreats in the community. There are three this fall that Forge VFR will be partnering with Camp Resilience to host: a Military and Veteran Couples Retreat, a Caregiver Retreat, and an Armor Up Retreat for First Responders. To highlight one in particular, check out the flyer for the November First Responder retreat:

Amazing work to our entire Forge VFR team - thank you for all that you do in the community!

September is National Recovery Month, a national observance, held every September to promote and support new evidence-based treatment and recovery practices, the nation’s strong and proud recovery community, and the dedication of service providers and communities who make recovery in all its forms possible. 

With that, please take an extra moment to share gratitude for yourself, for your colleagues, for your peers, and for your clients. Jason Palamara, our Director of Veteran and First Responder Engagement, sends out a weekly series to the engagement team, and this week’s message resonated and aligned particularly well with National Recovery Month. He stated:

“Believe me, when and if you question if you are having an impact, know that you most certainly are. You are, in the kind and warm hello that greets a [client] when they call our intake line, in the compassion you show in hearing their pain laid out in great detail during a session, or in the resources provided to them outside of what we can offer that makes them feel like they have not been forgotten.”

Thank you, Jason, for your inspiring words and thank you to each and every one of you who work tirelessly to help our communities in need in their recovery journey.

Welcome back to your newest recurring section – Monthly Tech Tips! Now that all our files are on Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint, here's how to add these folders to your File Explorer for easy access!

Connecting Teams/Sharepoint Files to your File Browser side bar:

• Locate the file folder you want to create a shortcut with.
• Go to your desired team and locate the folder you want to shortcut in the Document Library.
• For this example, we are creating a shortcut to the Miscellaneous folder here in the Operations team

• Go to the General Channel of the team, (Left Arrow), then to Files (Top Arrow) to get to the library that contains the Miscellaneous folder
• Next mouse over the folder and click on the folder shortcut icon that is circled above in red
• After you click you will see a popup that confirms you created your shortcut on the right

It’s as easy as that! You should now have the folder in your sidebar of your file explorer like the picture below:

If you have any questions, or your OneDrive is not synced to your file explorer already, please reach out to support! [email protected]

• Please send your employee headshot to Human Resources at [email protected] by September 9th, 2022.
• If you haven't done so, add the new Suicide and Crisis Line, 988, to your email signature according to the parameters listed in last month's newsletter.
• Forge Health staff - don't forget to use your VTO and Floating Holiday before the year is up! As a reminder, both of these days are not eligible for rollover and will be forfeited by the end of the calendar year if you don't use them.
• Don't forget about Insight Timer! Every employee here at both Forge and KPC has premium access to Insight Timer, a leading mediation app. Instructions below on how to create an account:

1. Step 1: Download the Insight Timer app
2. Step 2: Create an Insight Timer account
3. Step 3: Join our Workplace by clicking on the Work icon in the top left corner of the screen and entering your work email address. If you are a KPC employee, please use your current email address, but replace @kenpeterscenter.com with @forgehealth.com. For example, [email protected] would enroll as [email protected]
4. You can also click this link to join: https://insig.ht/vOUZPQ9Kmmb

Please remember, and a fresh reminder for our KPC staff, if you'd like to see your highlights, celebrations, wins, events, pictures of your pet, etc., included in next month's newsletter, please send your submissions to Rachel Rodriguez at [email protected]. I look forward to your September highlights!

That's all for this month - we hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Labor Day Weekend!