It is 3 a.m. The baby has finally settled, and you are wide awake, replaying every feed, every cry, every moment you were sure you got it wrong.
Tomorrow you will take her to her well-baby visit. Someone will weigh her, measure her, ask how she is sleeping. And somewhere near the end, someone may glance up and ask how you are doing.
You will probably say fine.
I have been hearing that word from mothers since 1999, first at the bedside as an antepartum, mother-baby and newborn nursery nurse, and now as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. I built the McDougal Dual-Patient Model because "fine" was never the whole story, and because no one in the system was assigned to hear the rest of it.
The short answer: The McDougal Dual-Patient Model of Maternal and Early Childhood Mental Health is a first-in-the-nation private practice model in which a mother and her child, from birth through age 5, are each enrolled as a patient of record and each receive a full mental health assessment from the same Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, in a single coordinated visit.
The gap no one was responsible for
Here is how care usually works. You are seen in one place. Your baby is seen in another. Your obstetric provider screens you with your baby in mind. Your pediatrician asks about your sleep on the way out the door. Two capable clinicians, two charts, two sets of questions.
And the relationship that is actually struggling, the one between you and your child, belongs to neither of them.
That relationship matters more than most families are told. A 2020 analysis in JAMA Pediatrics pooled 191 studies and more than 195,000 mother-child pairs and found that depression and anxiety during pregnancy and after birth were associated with differences in children's social-emotional, cognitive and language development.
Read that carefully. It is not a sentence about blame. It is a sentence about opportunity. Babies build their brains through back-and-forth moments with the adults who love them, what the Harvard Center on the Developing Child calls "serve and return." When a mother gets well, those moments come back. Help her, and you help her child.
What makes this model different
- Your child is a patient, not a footnote. Your little one has their own chart, their own evaluation and their own plan of care. Not observed through you. Seen in their own right.
- One clinician holds both stories. When your toddler's sleep falls apart the same month your anxiety comes roaring back, I see the connection, because I am caring for both of you.
- A framework built for the very young. Babies and toddlers are assessed with the DC:0-5, a diagnostic system designed for birth to age 5, not adult criteria squeezed down to fit a 14-month-old.
- Care that does not expire. This is not an evaluation you age out of. The mother I meet in the fourth trimester is the woman I care for through weaning, the return to work, and the next positive pregnancy test. The baby I meet at six weeks is the child I know at three, at seven, at thirteen. You will never have to explain your history to a stranger again.
Why "first in the nation"?
Mothers have long been screened with their babies in mind. Young children have been assessed in academic medical centers. What I could not find, anywhere, was an independent private practice that enrolled both as patients in their own right and cared for them together, under one roof and one plan.
So I built one.
Is this for you?
- You are pregnant or postpartum, and something feels off that you cannot quite name
- Your baby will not settle, will not latch, will not sleep, and you are running on empty
- Your toddler's feelings have outgrown your toolkit
- Autism or ADHD runs in your family, and you want eyes on it early
- You are neurodivergent yourself, and you want care that never asks you to mask
What a visit actually feels like
We meet by secure video, in your living room, in your real life. I am not looking for a perfectly behaved child. A toddler climbing the couch tells me something. So does a baby who will not settle. There is nothing to tidy and nothing to perform.
When your family needs something outside my scope, such as feeding therapy, occupational therapy, early intervention or relationship-based dyadic therapy, I coordinate it and stay your psychiatric home while it happens. You gain specialists. You do not lose me.
Ready when you are
Dr. Joanne Psychiatry is in-network with major commercial insurance plans and does not accept Medicaid or Medicare. Private pay is available, and superbills generate through your patient portal. Check your plan, learn more about maternal-infant and early childhood mental health care, or reserve your first visit. Prefer to talk first? Call 888-210-4050.
Frequently asked questions
Is my baby really a patient? Yes. Children from birth through age 5 are enrolled with their own chart, their own evaluation and their own plan of care.
Is this therapy? No. It is psychiatric evaluation and medication management for you, and mental health assessment for your child. Medication is not prescribed to children under 4.
Do I need a referral? No. You can book directly.
Written by Dr. Joanne Patterson, DNP, MSN, PMHNP-BC, APHN-BC, board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and 2025 American Psychiatric Nurses Association Nurse Innovator Award recipient. About Dr. Joanne
This article is educational and is not medical advice. In a crisis, call or text 988 or call 911. Pregnant and new mothers can call or text the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline at 1-833-TLC-MAMA (1-833-852-6262).
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