Carly Whitmore a registered nurse and applied health services researcher, is focused on improving mental health care and the systems in which that care is provided. She has recently joined the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing as an Assistant Professor (tenure stream) and as the CAMH Chair in Mental Health Nursing, a position jointly held with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).
Whitmore officially began her new role on August 1, 2026.
“We are honoured to welcome Dr. Whitmore to Bloomberg Nursing as one of our Research Chairs held at the Faculty. Her research expertise and focus on improving mental health care access and integration across the health system, are an asset to our Faculty and I look forward to seeing the impact of Dr. Whitmore’s important work,” says Robyn Stremler, Dean of the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing.
Improving care access and achieving better outcomes
Building on the foundation of her expertise as an RN in psychiatric care, much of Whitmore’s research has focused on evaluating and implementing new approaches to improve care access and achieve better outcomes for people living with mental health concerns and co-occurring chronic conditions.
“It is difficult to imagine a more exciting research environment to be in, both at Bloomberg Nursing, one of the world’s top ranked nursing schools, and CAMH, a global leader in mental health innovation,” says Whitmore. “To me, this role represents an important opportunity to accelerate research with clear and meaningful links to clinical practice.”
“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Whitmore back to CAMH. Her work to better integrate mental and physical health care strongly aligns with research underway across CAMH, and this Chair offers an exciting opportunity to strengthen nursing-led research and its impact on care,” says Sean Kidd, Senior Scientist and Co-Director of the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at CAMH.
Taking on this academic position is a bit of a home coming for Whitmore, who was previously a post-doctoral fellow at CAMH. It is also an opportunity she says, to partner with nurses, care teams, and patients with lived experience, to identify the issues that matter most, and deliver solutions in collaboration.
“I never lose sight of the fact that I am a nurse, and I approach my research from an angle of clinical integration. I want the work I do as a researcher to be relevant to the nurse who is at the point of care,” says Whitmore.
The right people providing the right care
Whitmore’s work aims to address the disparity in outcomes—including life expectancy— for those living with serious mental illness. Too often, individuals experience preventable complications of chronic disease, such as diabetes or other metabolic conditions because they are not getting the care they need.
“There are individuals whose mental and physical health is deeply interconnected but delivered in fragmented ways in different settings, by different people. That doesn’t reflect the reality of what health looks like,” says Whitmore of the driving motivation behind her research. “I want to find out how can we ensure the right people are providing the right care in the right places and address the system behaviours that are barriers.”
As she looks forward to her role at Bloomberg Nursing including teaching graduate and undergraduate students, Whitmore hopes to be the kind of mentor that she once had, someone who shares the breadth and strength of what a nursing career has to offer.
“I want to help students find joy in asking questions and solving problems, that would be the greatest impact I could have on the next generation of nurses,” says Whitmore.