About Me

I am a Board Certified Child and Adolescent Psychiatric/Mental Health Clinical Nurse Specialist. What does that mean? I have a Master’s degree in Psychiatric Nursing from SIUE and have worked in child psychiatric settings for almost 30 years. I have been providing evaluation and medication management services for the last 20 years. I believe strongly that the family, however that is defined, and environment is the core of mental health and wellness for a child. 

In 2015, I decided that I wanted to provide services in areas that were close to the patients that I serve, rather than be centrally located and have them travel to me, sometimes more than an hour away. Thus Tate Psychiatric Consulting was born. I now provide psychiatric services in 4 locations in Southern Illinois, Marion, Harrisburg, Salem, and Nashville, as well as providing medication management services to many of the area residential group homes. 

I believe that there are many non-medication modalities that can be helpful in fostering mental wellness in children, adolescents, and adults. Those things include yoga, Healing Touch, essential oils, and exercise. In cases where clients and providers have had difficulty finding the right medication for them, we also provide pharmacogenetic testing which determines if there is a genetic reason that a patient is not metabolizing a certain medication or group of medications and can develop an alternative treatment plan to better suit their needs. 

I see medication as only one tool in a toolbox of things that can be helpful in helping a child and family with their mental wellness needs. Just like with tools, you have to know how and when to use the right tool in the tool box and some of the tools in the toolbox may take longer to actually see a result. As your mental health provider, I am only one part of a treatment team that includes you, your family, your primary care provider, your therapist, and your school. Everyone having different perspectives and insights into what may help you the best, but working together, we can all do our best to improve your mental health and wellness.