Child Psychiatry Tampa
Evaluation and treatment for Tampa children and adolescents ages 5 through 17, delivered by HIPAA-secure video across Hillsborough. Depression and anxiety screening, attention concerns, safety planning, and a full hour for the first appointment.
Tampa kids on a real schedule, not a 4-month wait.
Tell us what is going on. A care coordinator will get you on the calendar (telehealth or in-person at 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.
Adolescent depression is easy to miss in a big district
Hillsborough County runs one of the largest school districts in the country. A high schooler who is quietly struggling can go a long time without anyone outside the family noticing, because the ratio of students to counselors makes early detection a matter of luck more than process. Tampa parents often call us after a report card rather than after a conversation.
Depression in a teenager frequently does not look like sadness. It looks like irritability, a collapsed sleep schedule, dropped activities, a friend group that quietly changed, grades that fell over one semester rather than gradually, and a flat answer of I am fine delivered from behind a closed door. Parents second-guess themselves about whether it is ordinary adolescence. Some of it is. Some of it is not, and the distinction is clinical rather than intuitive.
What screening is, and what it is not
We use brief validated screening questionnaires at intake and at follow-up visits. A screen is a structured way to ask the same questions consistently and to track change over time. It is not a diagnostic test. A high score prompts a careful interview; it does not by itself establish anything, and a low score from a teenager who is minimizing does not close the question.
The interview is where a diagnosis is made or ruled out. We ask about duration, about function at school and at home, about sleep and appetite, about substance use, and about what the last good stretch looked like and when it ended. We ask about trauma. We ask about thyroid problems, anemia, concussion history, and medications that can affect mood, because a psychiatric presentation sometimes has a medical driver that nobody has looked for.
Safety, stated plainly
We ask every adolescent about self-harm and suicidal thinking, at the first visit and at follow-ups, and we ask directly. Asking does not plant the idea. That worry is understandable and the evidence does not support it. Teenagers frequently answer a direct question honestly when nobody has asked one before.
When there is risk we say so, and we build a safety plan with the family in the room. That includes means restriction, which for most Florida households means a specific conversation about firearms and about how medication is stored. If a teenager needs a level of care beyond outpatient we say that too, and help the family get there rather than continuing appointments at the wrong intensity. If you are in immediate danger, call 911. The Suicide and Crisis Lifeline can be reached by call or text at 988, any time.
What a first appointment looks like for a fifteen-year-old
Sixty minutes. We usually begin with the parent and teenager together to establish the history and the timeline, then spend a portion of the visit with the teenager alone. Adolescents give a different and often more accurate account of sleep, substances, and mood when a parent is not present, and we set expectations about confidentiality with both of them at the start rather than improvising later.
The visit ends with a formulation in plain language and a plan. For adolescent depression that plan commonly involves therapy, attention to sleep and school load, and family work. Medication is one option, considered on its own merits and discussed with its risks, including the boxed warning about suicidal thinking in children and young adults that applies to antidepressants. It is not presented as the default first step. Response varies between individuals, and we track it rather than assuming it.
Scheduling around a Tampa school day
Tampa families are served primarily by HIPAA-secure telehealth. There is no Ascend office in South Tampa, New Tampa, or Westchase. The nearest offices are Carrollwood at 3971 Moran Rd, Suite 101, and Wesley Chapel at 27724 Cashford Circle, Suite 102. Video removes the drive, which for a teenager usually means not losing a full class block to a follow-up.
The one appointment that must happen face to face is a first stimulant prescription, which Florida controlled-substance rules require be done in person. That is scheduled at Wesley Chapel, roughly thirty to forty minutes from most Tampa neighborhoods and closer from New Tampa. Everything else, including evaluation, therapy coordination, and follow-up for non-stimulant treatment, runs by video.
Margot Krahn, PMHNP-BC
Margot Krahn, PMHNP-BC is board-certified and licensed in Florida, with twelve years of clinical experience and lifespan training that formally covers child, adolescent, adult, and geriatric care. Tampa families see her by HIPAA-secure telehealth, with the Wesley Chapel office as the in-person option.
With teenagers she is straightforward about the ground rules at the start of a first visit: what stays between them, what does not, and why. Adolescents tend to give a more useful history to a clinician who states the rules up front than to one who is vague about them.
Read Margot's full bioCommon questions from Tampa families
How do I tell ordinary teenage moodiness from depression?
Duration, function, and change. Moodiness fluctuates. A depressive episode tends to persist for weeks and to drag function down with it, at school, with friends, and at home. A teenager who has dropped the activities they used to want to do, whose sleep has inverted, and whose grades fell over one semester is worth an evaluation. That is a clinical judgment rather than a parenting judgment.
Is it safe to ask my teenager directly about suicide?
Yes. Asking directly does not increase risk, and it frequently gives a struggling adolescent the first opening they have had. If the answer worries you, call us. In an emergency call 911, or reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by call or text at 988.
Does Ascend have a Tampa office for child psychiatry?
Tampa families are seen by Florida telehealth. Ascend has physical offices in Wesley Chapel, Carrollwood, and Lakeland. Any pediatric psychiatric visit that has to be face to face is scheduled at Wesley Chapel.
What will you tell me about what my teenager says?
We explain the boundaries to both of you at the start. Parents receive what they need in order to support treatment: the diagnosis, the plan, and anything involving safety, which is always shared. Ordinary private material a teenager discloses is generally kept between the teenager and the clinician, because that is what makes the account honest enough to be useful.
Will my child be put on medication?
Not automatically, and not as a first move by default. An evaluation comes first, and the plan that follows may involve therapy, changes to sleep and school demands, family work, medication, or a combination. If medication is on the table we go through the reasoning and the risks, including the boxed warning that applies to antidepressants in children and young adults, before anything is prescribed.
Do you accept Medicaid?
No. Ascend does not bill Medicaid. If your child is covered by Medicaid, call the care team and we will walk you through what options exist.
A real evaluation, inside two weeks.
Sixty minutes with the same clinician each visit, scheduled around a Tampa school day. Use the form at the top of this page or call, and a care coordinator will be in touch within one business day.