Child and Teen Psychiatry in Apollo Beach
Psychiatric evaluation and treatment for Apollo Beach and SouthShore children and teenagers, ages 5 through 17, by HIPAA-secure Florida telehealth. Most families arrive with a pediatrician’s referral and a question, and the evaluation is built to answer it, with sixty-minute first visits and the same provider every time.
Child psychiatry for Apollo Beach families, usually within one to two weeks.
Tell us what is going on with your kid. A care coordinator will get you scheduled (telehealth, or in person in Tampa or Wesley Chapel), usually within one business day.
Got it. We will be in touch.
A care coordinator will reach out within one business day. If you would rather not wait, call (813) 670-3005.
Insurance and self-pay options are reviewed on the call. Calls are answered Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Please don’t include medical details here; we cover those on the call.
Quick answer
Child and adolescent psychiatry for Apollo Beach and SouthShore families, ages 5 through 17, is provided by Margot Krahn, PMHNP-BC, a board-certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, by secure Florida telehealth, with in-person visits at the Tampa (Carrollwood) or Wesley Chapel office when needed. Most families come with a pediatrician’s referral; the evaluation answers the question the referral raised. Insurance and self-pay options are reviewed on the first call.
Apollo Beach: the referral slip from the pediatrician
Apollo Beach, Waterset, MiraBay and the rest of the SouthShore corridor have filled with young families faster than child psychiatric capacity has followed them down US-41. The practical result is that most families who reach us from here start the same way: a pediatrician at a well visit heard something that concerned them, handed over a referral, and the parent went home with a piece of paper and a list of practices that are not taking new patients. The referral itself is usually short. "Rule out ADHD." "Anxiety, please evaluate." "Behavior concerns, 8-year-old." The question behind it is longer, and that is what the first visit is for.
We take pediatric referrals seriously because pediatricians see a lot of children and know what ordinary looks like. When one of them says this is not ordinary, it usually is not. What they generally cannot do inside a fifteen-minute visit is sort out which of several explanations fits, and that sorting is the job.
What a child psychiatric evaluation adds to a pediatric visit
Time, mostly, and a different kind of history. The first appointment runs sixty minutes. We take a developmental history from birth forward, a school history, a sleep history, and a family history, because attention, anxiety and mood problems all run in families. We ask what changed and when; a problem that has been present since preschool points somewhere different from one that started in second grade after a move. We screen for depression and for safety concerns every time, at every age, regardless of the referral question.
We also ask for what already exists. Teacher comments, report cards, any screening form the pediatrician already ran, a 504 plan or IEP, prior testing. Parent and teacher rating scales are useful when they add something, and we send them out when they do, but a scale is a data point rather than a diagnosis. A child can score high on an attention screen because they are anxious, because they are not sleeping, or because they are eight and the class is boring. The evaluation is what separates those.
Ages six to twelve: separating temperament, environment and disorder
A large share of SouthShore referrals are for children between six and twelve, and this age range has a particular trap. Big emotions, short attention, and resistance to boring tasks are all developmentally normal in some measure. The question is never whether a child has them; it is whether they are out of proportion to age, show up in more than one setting, and cost the child something real, such as friendships, learning, or sleep. A child who is a handful at home and fine at Apollo Beach Elementary is telling us something different from a child who struggles in both places.
Environment matters too, and we ask about it without blame. A new sibling, a parent working rotating shifts at the port or the power plant, a move into a new subdivision where the child knows nobody yet. None of those cause a disorder, but each can turn up the volume on one, and a plan that ignores them is incomplete.
Sharing the plan with your pediatrician and the school
A first visit ends with an explanation of what we think is going on and a plan. With your permission, we send that plan back to the pediatrician who referred you, so the medical home stays whole. Medication is one option among several, discussed on its own merits when it fits the picture, and never the automatic first move. For many six- to nine-year-olds the plan starts with parent guidance, a sleep schedule, and school-side changes before any prescription is considered. Individual results vary, and we say so.
For the school, we provide documentation of a diagnosis, treatment history, and the accommodations we recommend. Whether the school implements a 504 plan or opens an IEP evaluation is the school’s decision under its own process; a clinician’s letter is one input to it. We tell families which conversation to ask for so they are not discovering the difference after the meeting.
How Apollo Beach families are seen
Apollo Beach, Ruskin and Sun City Center are served by HIPAA-secure telehealth. We do not have an office on the SouthShore, and we would rather say that here than after you call. Video visits cover the evaluation, anxiety and depression treatment, behavior and sleep follow-up, parent guidance, and ongoing non-stimulant attention care. One category of visit cannot be done by video: a first prescription for a stimulant medication requires an in-person evaluation under Florida controlled-substance rules. That visit happens at our Tampa (Carrollwood) office or our Wesley Chapel office, about forty-five and fifty-five minutes up I-75 on a normal morning, and it is usually a single appointment with care continuing by video afterward.
Care for Apollo Beach families is part of our child and adolescent psychiatry in Florida. Visits that have to happen face to face are held at our Tampa (Carrollwood) office or the Wesley Chapel office, the home of in-person child psychiatry in Wesley Chapel, and the rest can run through child psychiatry by telehealth. Families on the Riverview side of Big Bend Road can also read about child psychiatry in Riverview, and adults in the household can start with psychiatry in Apollo Beach.
Margot Krahn, PMHNP-BC
Margot Krahn is a board-certified, Florida-licensed psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner with twelve years of clinical experience. Her training is lifespan, which means the child and adolescent curriculum is part of her formal preparation rather than something added later. She sees Apollo Beach-area families across Florida by HIPAA-secure telehealth, and in person at the Wesley Chapel office.
With middle schoolers she tends to spend the first part of a visit with the parent in the room and the second part without, because the two accounts of a hard morning are rarely the same and both are worth having. She would rather take sixty minutes and get the history right than start a plan on a partial picture.
Read Margot's full bioQuestions SouthShore parents ask
Our pediatrician already started a medication. Can you take over?
Usually, yes. Bring the current prescription, the dose history, and anything the pediatrician documented, and we will start with a full evaluation rather than a refill. Sometimes the plan continues unchanged; sometimes the evaluation points at a different explanation. If the medication is a stimulant, Florida rules may require an in-person visit before we prescribe it.
Do we need a referral to be seen?
No. Many Apollo Beach families arrive with one, and we use it, but a parent can call directly. If you have a referral, the pediatrician’s note is helpful and we send our plan back to them with your permission.
Do you have an office in Apollo Beach or Ruskin?
No. Ascend has offices in Tampa (Carrollwood), Wesley Chapel, and Lakeland. SouthShore families are served by HIPAA-secure Florida telehealth. If a visit has to happen face to face, it is scheduled at the Tampa or Wesley Chapel office.
Who is in the room for a seven-year-old’s visit?
The parent, for most of it. With younger children the first visit is largely a parent interview plus time with the child, and the child does not need to sit still for an hour. For older children we spend part of the visit with the child alone when they are willing.
What should we bring to the first appointment?
Report cards, any teacher comments or school screening forms, the pediatrician’s referral and any growth or sleep notes, prior testing, a current medication list, and a 504 plan or IEP if one exists. If you have none of that, come anyway; the history we take covers most of it.
Do you bill Medicaid?
Ascend does not bill Medicaid. Families whose child is covered by Medicaid should call the care team, and we will go through the options that exist rather than leaving you to guess.
How soon can we be seen?
Most new Apollo Beach and SouthShore families get a telehealth intake within one to two weeks. A small number of slots are held each week for children in crisis or out of school. Call (813) 670-3005 for a genuine next-available time.
Answer the question the referral raised.
Sixty-minute first visits, a plan sent back to your pediatrician, and telehealth that fits a SouthShore commute. Send the form at the top of this page or call, and a care coordinator will reach you within one business day.