Geriatric Psychiatrist Clearwater
Geriatric psychiatry for Clearwater and north Pinellas adults 60 and older, by HIPAA-secure telehealth. Real medication review, late-life depression and anxiety expertise, and a lifespan-trained PMHNP who takes the full medication list seriously.
Geriatric psychiatry that fits north Pinellas life.
Tell us what is going on. A care coordinator will set up a telehealth visit, walk through your Medicare options, and confirm a real next-available appointment.
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.
Clearwater and north Pinellas: a retiree market with thin geriatric psychiatry options
Clearwater, Dunedin, Palm Harbor, Tarpon Springs, and Safety Harbor together hold one of the largest concentrations of retirees in Pinellas County, and the local geriatric psychiatric workforce is too small for the population. Established neighborhoods around Belleair, the Greenbriar area, the Bayside communities, and the active-adult communities off McMullen-Booth keep producing a steady stream of older adults who need real psychiatric care and cannot get on a local calendar inside three months.
The right model for north Pinellas is telehealth. Most Clearwater-area patients are not eager to fight US-19 or the bridges for a 40-minute follow-up. A telehealth visit from the living room or the front porch is almost always the better fit, and the clinical care is the same.
What real geriatric psychiatric care looks like at Ascend
Sixty-minute first visits. The medication list is the starting point: prescriptions, supplements, over-the-counter pills, and patches all reviewed in detail. We look for interactions, drugs on the Beers list that should be tapered safely in coordination with primary care, and medications that can themselves cause or worsen late-life depression. The medication review is not a footnote; it is often where the most clinically useful work happens.
After the medication review, the visit covers sleep, appetite, mood, recent losses, energy, falls, and what changed in the last six to twelve months. We screen for cognitive change when indicated. We coordinate with the primary care physician on any prescription changes. Family members are welcome on the call with the patient's permission.
How Clearwater telehealth visits actually work
The care coordinator does a 5-minute tech check by phone before the first appointment so the technology does not surprise anyone on visit day. Most Clearwater-area patients join from a tablet or a laptop; some use a smartphone. The visit runs in a HIPAA-secure video room.
Adult children, spouses, and home health aides are welcome on the call with the patient's permission. We can also do voice-only follow-up visits for established patients when video is genuinely not workable. We work with Medicare-eligible patients on a self-pay basis and provide a superbill that many patients submit to Medicare for partial reimbursement. We do not currently bill Medicare directly for psychiatric services.
Margot Krahn, PMHNP-BC
Board-certified Florida-licensed psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. Lifespan-trained, which means her formal training covers child, adolescent, adult, and geriatric psychiatric care. She sees patients in person at our Wesley Chapel office and across Florida via HIPAA-secure telehealth.
Margot believes the first visit is for listening. Sixty minutes, the medication list out on the table, the family in the room when it helps. The treatment plan comes from what she actually learns about you, not from what fits a template.
Read Margot's full bioFrequently Asked Questions
Do you have an in-person office in Clearwater?
Not at this time. We serve Clearwater and north Pinellas via statewide Florida telehealth. For patients who specifically want in-person care, our Wesley Chapel office is about 50-60 minutes east depending on bridge and traffic.
Do you accept Medicare for Clearwater telehealth?
We work with Medicare-eligible patients on a self-pay basis and provide a superbill that many patients submit to Medicare for partial reimbursement. We do not currently bill Medicare directly for psychiatric services. Call (813) 670-3005 and we will walk through your specific reimbursement path before the first visit.
My mother lives in a Clearwater assisted-living community. Will telehealth still work?
Yes. We work with several Pinellas-area assisted-living facilities whose staff set up telehealth visits either in a common-area video room or in the resident's apartment. A family member or aide can be present with the patient's consent.
What if my parent will not get on a video call?
More common than people expect. We can do voice-only follow-up visits for established patients when video is not workable. Many older adults also do well when an adult child sets up the tablet and joins the call with them, which removes the technology question entirely.
How quickly can a Clearwater patient get seen?
Typically one to two weeks for a new telehealth intake, which is meaningfully faster than the three-to-six-month wait that has become standard at most north Pinellas practices.
Do you treat anxiety and grief in older adults, or only depression?
All of the above. We treat late-life depression, anxiety, grief and bereavement, sleep disturbance, polypharmacy-driven mood changes, and the psychiatric symptoms that often accompany dementia (agitation, depression, sleep).
Real psychiatric care, for the years that matter.
Same-week intake, real 60-minute first visits, and the same provider every time. Call us or send the form at the top of the page; a care coordinator will get back to you within one business day.