DOCTORS OF INTEREST
The CHILD PSYCHIATRIST
Dr. Daniel Tucker
BY SIOBHAN FITZPATRICK AUSTIN
72
didn’t plan to be
a psychiatrist.
While an
undergraduate at Yale University,
he was a history major, but his
change in trajectory turned out
to be a fruitful one. For six years
Tucker has been chief of the
Division of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry at the University of
Florida College of Medicine’s
Department of Psychiatry in
Gainesville. Two years ago, he
moved to Vero Beach to head the
local child psychiatry program
at University of Florida’s Health
Center for Psychiatry, Addiction
and Pain Medicine in Vero.
“My wife and I like Vero very
much. It has a community feeling
year-round and an artistic side that
feeds and nurtures, and walking on
the beach is wonderful,” he says in
his soft, approachable voice.
In his robust career thus far,
which still includes teaching
medical students as an associate
professor at the University of
Florida College of Medicine’s
Department of Psychiatry, one key
thing that Tucker has learned is that
childhood issues are not limited to
any socioeconomic group. “These
problems come from all walks of
life and are not unique to poverty,”
he says.
Tucker also says that parental
input is key to effective therapy. “I
always seek a family perspective,”
says Tucker, who is a huge advocate
of parent education, particularly for
parents who are over-controlling
with their kids.
Somewhat jokingly, but with
an undercurrent of seriousness,
he says, “I rip off the ‘12 Steps’
of Alcoholics Anonymous and
Al-Anon. The idea that the 12-step
method is sorting through things
you can reasonably do something
about and to let go of worry about
the things beyond your control.”
But Tucker says he is affirming
of most parents. “It’s all about the
parents’ love and their wish to
ED DRONDOSKI
>>
Dr. Daniel Tucker enjoys his new work in
the child psychiatry division of University
of Florida’s Health Center for Psychiatry,
Addiction and Pain Medicine in Vero.
Treasure Coast Medical Report