Child and Teen Psychiatry in Plant City
Psychiatric evaluation and treatment for Plant City and east Hillsborough children and teenagers, ages 5 through 17, by HIPAA-secure Florida telehealth. Ongoing ADHD care when a prescriber retires or moves, plus anxiety and mood concerns, with sixty-minute first visits and the same provider at every follow-up.
Child and teen psychiatry for Plant City 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 Plant City and east Hillsborough 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 Wesley Chapel or Tampa (Carrollwood) office when a visit has to be face to face. She takes over and monitors existing ADHD treatment and evaluates anxiety and mood concerns. Insurance and self-pay options are reviewed on the first call.
Plant City: when the prescriber who managed your child’s ADHD is gone
Plant City families reach us for a reason that is less dramatic than a crisis and more common than most people expect. The pediatrician who had been managing a child’s ADHD medication for three years retired, or moved, or the practice decided it would no longer prescribe stimulants. The refill runs out, the nearest child psychiatrist with an opening is in Tampa four months from now, and a ten-year-old at Walden Lake Elementary or a fourteen-year-old at Tomlin is about to start a semester without the medication that was working. East Hillsborough has grown along I-4 faster than its pediatric mental health capacity, and this gap is the result.
Taking over an existing treatment is a real clinical task, not a paperwork one, and doing it well is a large part of what we do for Plant City.
Taking over an existing ADHD treatment the right way
The first visit runs sixty minutes even when the diagnosis is years old, because we are not a refill service. We take a developmental history, a school history, a sleep history, and a family history. We ask how the diagnosis was made and by whom, what has been tried, what worked, what was stopped and why, and what the current dose actually does on a school day versus a Saturday. We ask for the records: the original evaluation if one exists, prior prescriptions and dose changes, growth charts, and any rating scales the school completed. We screen for anxiety, depression and safety every time, because a child who was diagnosed at six can have developed something new by twelve that nobody has asked about.
Sometimes the evaluation confirms the plan and we continue it. Sometimes it finds that a medication was never adjusted after a growth spurt, or that sleep is undermining it, or that what looked like worsening ADHD is anxiety that arrived in middle school. We tell families what we find, including when the honest answer is that the current plan is fine.
Stimulants, non-stimulants, and the one visit that must be in person
Most children with ADHD are treated with a stimulant medication, and Florida controlled-substance rules require an in-person evaluation before we write a first prescription for one, even when a child has been taking it for years under another prescriber. That visit happens at our Wesley Chapel office at 27724 Cashford Circle, Suite 102, or our Tampa (Carrollwood) office; there is no Ascend office in Plant City. From the Walden Lake side of town, Wesley Chapel is about forty minutes up I-4 and I-75 on a normal morning. It is usually a single in-person appointment, with care continuing by video afterward. Non-stimulant options for attention can be started and managed by telehealth from the first visit.
We ask families to plan the handoff so the medication does not lapse: call when a refill or two remain, not after the last one. If a gap is unavoidable, we say so and help the school understand what a few weeks without medication will look like.
Monitoring that is more than a refill
Ongoing ADHD care is where a lot of children are quietly underserved. A medication started at age seven does not automatically fit at twelve. Follow-ups cover growth, appetite, sleep, mood, blood pressure where relevant, and whether the medication is doing its job in the setting that matters, which is usually a classroom. We ask teachers for input when it adds something. We adjust when the evidence says to and leave things alone when it does not. Individual results vary, and we say so plainly.
For the school, we provide documentation of the 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, and a clinician’s letter is one input to it. Many Plant City children already have a 504 plan from their original diagnosis; we review it rather than starting over.
How Plant City families are seen
Plant City, Dover, Thonotosassa and the surrounding east Hillsborough communities are served by HIPAA-secure telehealth. Video visits cover the evaluation, ongoing medication monitoring, anxiety and depression treatment, and sleep and mood follow-up, which means most Plant City families make one trip for the in-person stimulant visit and none after that. We would rather be honest that there is no office in Plant City than have you find out after you call.
Care for Plant City families is part of our child and adolescent psychiatry in Florida. Visits that have to happen face to face are held at the Wesley Chapel office, the home of in-person child psychiatry in Wesley Chapel, or at our Tampa (Carrollwood) office, and the rest can run through child psychiatry by telehealth. Families on the Polk County side can read about child psychiatry in Lakeland, and adults in the household can start with psychiatry in Plant City.
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 Plant City-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 Plant City parents ask
Our pediatrician stopped prescribing my son’s ADHD medication. Can you continue it?
Usually, yes, after a full evaluation rather than a straight refill. Bring the prescription history and any records of the original diagnosis. If the medication is a stimulant, Florida rules require an in-person visit before we write the first prescription, which we schedule at the Wesley Chapel or Tampa office.
Do we need the original diagnosis paperwork?
It helps, and we will request it with your permission, but a missing file does not stop the evaluation. The sixty-minute first visit rebuilds the history from the parent, the school and the child, and we confirm the diagnosis ourselves rather than relying only on a years-old note.
Why does a stimulant require an in-person visit when my child has taken it for years?
Because Florida controlled-substance rules apply to the first prescription from a new prescriber, not to the child’s history. It is usually a single in-person appointment at the Wesley Chapel or Tampa office, with care continuing by video afterward. Non-stimulant medications do not have this requirement.
How often will we need follow-up visits?
Closer together at the start, then usually every few months once a plan is stable. Follow-ups check growth, appetite, sleep, mood and whether the medication is working in the classroom, and they happen by video, so there is no drive from Plant City for routine care.
Do you have an office in Plant City?
No. Ascend has offices in Wesley Chapel, Tampa (Carrollwood), and Lakeland. Plant City families are served by HIPAA-secure Florida telehealth, with the Wesley Chapel office, about forty minutes up I-4 and I-75, for the visits that must be face to face.
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 Plant City families get a telehealth intake within one to two weeks. If a refill is about to run out, say so when you call; a small number of slots are held each week for children in crisis, out of school, or about to lose a working medication. Call (813) 670-3005 for a genuine next-available time.
Keep the treatment that works from lapsing.
Sixty-minute first visits, honest monitoring, and telehealth that spares Plant City families the drive for routine care. Send the form at the top of this page or call, and a care coordinator will reach you within one business day.