Carla Hilario

Carla Hilario serves as Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing within the Faculty of Health and Social Development at the University of British Columbia Okanagan campus. Her research program centers on youth mental health equity, with particular focus on pandemic impacts, systemic racism in mental healthcare systems, and interventions for vulnerable adolescent populations including newcomer young men and racialized communities.

Dr. Hilario's research interests span youth mental health service utilization, mental health equity frameworks, and the intersection of racism with mental healthcare access. She employs mixed-methods approaches including youth-engaged research, photovoice methodologies, and administrative data analysis to investigate structural barriers in mental health systems. Her work consistently applies intersectional lenses to examine how race, gender, migration status, and socioeconomic factors compound mental health disparities among adolescents.

Analysis of her 15 most recent publications (2024-2025) reveals three dominant trends: (1) Quantitative investigations of pandemic-related disruptions to adolescent mental health services using Alberta administrative data, (2) Qualitative explorations of racism's impact on Chinese-Canadian and other racialized youth mental health, and (3) Systemic analyses of institutional barriers in community mental healthcare delivery. These works collectively emphasize structural determinants of mental health and advocate for equity-centered service redesign.

Dr. Hilario currently leads multiple CIHR-funded research initiatives including a $185,600 Operating Grant examining pandemic impacts on youth mental health services (2022-2024) and a $210,000 Early Career Investigator Grant studying racism in youth mental healthcare (2021-2024). She collaborates with national and international researchers across disciplines including psychiatry, public health, and social work. While specific student mentees aren't listed in the source material, her youth-engaged research methodology inherently involves training and mentoring young researchers through participatory design processes.

Affiliated with UBC's Search Institute for Healthy Living and Chronic Disease Prevention, Dr. Hilario contributes to the Research Cluster in Culture, Creativity, Health and Well-Being. Her team integrates community partners including PolicyWise for Children and Families and the Women and Children's Health Research Institute to co-design interventions such as the 'Creating Hope' youth suicide prevention program and the ACE Intervention for HIV stigma reduction.