Innovative Mental Health and Pain Care is family owned and operated by Michael and Angela Tefft. Mike has worked in a management capacity for 30 years. His organizational and interpersonal skills are second to none. He strives to make every interaction as pleasant as possible. Angela has been a registered nurse for nearly 30 years; and has been a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner and Family Practice Nurse Practitioner for nearly 10 years. She has long recognized the importance of family in the recovery of clients she served. She has worked in a coronary care unit, medical-surgical unit, and home health. She has also worked as a case manager and charge nurse in these settings. 

 

Over the years, Angela learned that clients who suffer from mental health disorders have poorer physical health outcomes overall than clients without mental health disorders. Conversely, clients with untreated or undertreated pain or physical disorders suffered from more mental health disorders. This realization prompted her to return to graduate school in an effort to make a difference to clients and their families. She earned her Doctorate of Nursing Practice in 2014 at University of Tennessee Health Science Center with family-focused concentrations in both physical and mental health domains.

 

She is a board certified Family Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP-BC) and Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP-C). These certifications allow her to take both physical and mental health into consideration while developing treatment plans, to proactively address problems that may develop with certain treatments, or make recommendations for medical issues/treatments that may be contributing to a mental health disorder. She is licensed to treat clients of all ages, and has experience with clients from preschool to older adulthood. She has also trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)  which is effective in treating most mental health disorders and in some health issues.