Psychology & Mental Health
Pediatric Psychology addresses health and illness issues in children, adolescents and families. Psychology and mental health involves treating your child’s physical, social, emotional and developmental needs. That’s why our experts treat the whole patient with family-centered care.
Downloads:
Roles of Pediatric Psychologists
Children’s Hospital’s pediatric psychologists play different roles for our patients. Depending on your child’s needs, our specialists can support your family as an inpatient, outpatient, or during a visit to one of our clinics.
Inpatients
Our pediatric psychologists work with children during their stay at Children’s Hospital on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes a patient’s care may need psychological support (for example, eating disorders and non-epileptic seizures). In these cases, our experts work with families and patients to make sure your child recovers quickly and fully.
Clinics
Children’s Hospital has several referral-based clinics and programs. Our clinics combine physicians and specialists from different areas to treat a child’s whole health. Pediatric psychology is often included in these clinics, if your child’s primary care provider recommends it. Follow-up with a pediatric psychologist can happen in clinic, at our psychologists’ practice in our Medical Office Building (MOB), or at a community agency.
Outpatients
Patients can be referred to this office from specialists, primary care practices, other therapists or directly from family. They are treated in our psychology office in the Medical Office Building (MOB) on Children’s Hospital’s main campus, or at the Rehab Center off of Westland Drive. Common reasons for referrals include:
- History with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS)
- Anxiety
- School avoidance
- Depression
- Asperger’s syndrome
- Tourette’s syndrome
- Picky eating
Because of their limited outpatient capacity, our pediatric psychology office accepts patients who are less likely to be served in the community, including those with chronic medical conditions and the very young.
Meet our Pediatric Psychologists
 Allison Elledge, PhD
Dr. Elledge is a licensed psychologist at East Tennessee Children's Hospital. Dr. Elledge earned her doctorate in clinical child psychology from the Clinical Child Psychology Program at the University of Kansas. Additionally, she completed the Child Clinical and Pediatric Psychology Doctoral Internship at the University of Louisville School of Medicine and Kosair Children’s Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky. She has received training in pediatric psychology, integrated primary care, acute psychiatric inpatient care, and evidence-based outpatient psychotherapy. Dr. Elledge specializes in individual and family therapy for children, adolescents, and their families, particularly for those children and families who are coping with medical diagnoses.
|
 Regina Hummel, PhD
Dr. Hummel is a licensed psychologist at East Tennessee Children's Hospital. She earned her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Mississippi in 1999. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at Charleston Area Medical Center. Since completing her training, Dr. Hummel has worked in medical and outpatient settings with children and adolescents. She specializes in treating children, adolescents and young adults with anxiety, depression, adjustment disorders and chronic health conditions. She also specializes in parent training and assisting with parent-child relationship difficulties. She is also skilled in the behavioral treatment of toileting and sleep difficulties in children.
|
 Janis Neece, PhD
Dr. Neece is a licensed psychologist at East Tennessee Children's Hospital. She earned her doctorate in counseling psychology from Texas A&M University in 1994. She interned at Georgia State University. She worked for several years at Utah State University’s Counseling Center, specializing in work with persons with anxiety disorders. After moving to Tennessee in 2002, she completed a post-doctoral internship at Cherokee Health Systems where she gained expertise in autism spectrum disorders and behavioral problems in children. She worked in community mental health and in private practice before joining ETCH part-time in 2008 and full-time in 2013. At East Tennessee Children’s Hospital she also provides pediatric sleep and OCD services.
|
To contact the Pediatric Psychology Department, please call (865) 541-8805.
