NAMI: Mental Health Advocacy, Lived Experience, and Leadership
As I reflect back on the NAMI-NYS Conference held in November 2025, I continue to feel energized by the work being done across New York State to strengthen mental health awareness, advocacy, and access to care.
The conference brought together advocates, clinicians, educators, policymakers, and community leaders who share a commitment to improving the lives of individuals and families impacted by mental illness. Spaces like this are important because they remind us that mental health advocacy is not isolated work. It is collective work that happens through partnership, education, and shared purpose.
For me, the conference carried particular meaning. On November 15, during the gathering, I learned that I had been elected to serve on the Board of Directors for NAMI-NYS. Receiving that news while surrounded by individuals who dedicate their lives to mental health advocacy made the moment especially meaningful.
It reinforced something I have believed for many years. Progress in mental health care requires leadership that is grounded both in professional expertise and lived experience.
A Lifelong Commitment to Social Work and Mental Health
My career in social work began more than two decades ago. I earned my Master of Social Work from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College in 2001, and I have worked in the mental health field ever since.
Over the course of my career I have served as a clinician, educator, and advocate. I have worked with individuals experiencing trauma, depression, anxiety, and severe mental illness. I have supported families navigating complex emotional challenges. I have also spent years teaching and mentoring students who are entering the social work profession.
Social work is not simply a career for me. It is a lifelong professional commitment to supporting human dignity, resilience, and access to care.
Throughout my work I have seen the ways mental health intersects with nearly every part of a person's life. Mental health affects how we learn, how we work, how we parent, how we build relationships, and how we navigate adversity. When people have access to compassionate and culturally responsive care, it can change the course of their lives.
But my connection to this work began long before graduate school.
When Mental Health Is Part of Your Family Story
Mental health was not an abstract concept in my childhood. It was something my family lived with.
My father was once diagnosed with schizophrenia, although in many ways his experience resembled what clinicians might today recognize as schizoaffective disorder. His life reflected the complexity that often accompanies serious mental illness. Despite the challenges he faced, he worked for more than two decades and supported our family. Like many people living with significant psychiatric conditions, he experienced periods when he was relatively stable and periods when his symptoms became more difficult.
Substance use became part of that struggle as well. Crack cocaine addiction entered his life at times, complicating an already difficult mental health journey.
My mother carried her own experiences with depression and trauma. Like many families navigating mental illness, the emotional impact extended throughout the household.
Some of my siblings have faced their own mental health challenges, and along the way I have also navigated my own experiences with trauma and depression.
Growing up in this environment shaped how I see mental health. It taught me early that people are far more complex than any diagnosis. It also taught me that families often carry enormous emotional weight while trying to hold things together.
Those experiences did not push me away from the mental health field. In many ways, they guided me toward it.
They taught me that compassion matters. Access to care matters. Community support matters.
The Importance of Mental Health Advocacy
Organizations like NAMI-NYS play an essential role in advancing mental health awareness and advocacy across our state. Through education, support networks, and policy work, they amplify the voices of individuals and families affected by mental illness.
The conference itself reflected the diversity of perspectives that are needed to strengthen mental health systems. Conversations ranged from workforce shortages and access barriers to the importance of culturally responsive care, peer support programs, and community education.
One of the most powerful aspects of the gathering was simply being in a room filled with people who understand the urgency of this work. Mental health advocacy requires persistence. It requires collaboration. And it requires leadership that is willing to engage both the personal and systemic dimensions of the issue.
Leadership Rooted in Both Experience and Practice
As I step into my role on the Board of Directors for NAMI-NYS, I do so carrying both professional expertise and personal understanding.
My clinical work as a licensed social worker continues to center on supporting individuals navigating complex emotional realities. My work as an educator allows me to help prepare the next generation of social workers for the challenges and responsibilities of this profession. My advocacy work focuses on strengthening systems of care so that individuals and families can access the support they need.
These roles intersect in important ways. Effective mental health leadership requires an understanding of policy and systems, but it also requires empathy and humility.
Many people living with mental illness continue to face stigma, barriers to care, and limited access to resources. Addressing these challenges requires leaders who are willing to listen to lived experience and translate that understanding into meaningful action.
Continuing the Work Ahead
Mental health advocacy has gained increasing visibility in recent years, yet significant challenges remain. Workforce shortages continue to affect communities across the state. Access to care remains uneven. Many individuals and families still struggle to find timely and affordable support.
At the same time, there is growing momentum for change.
The conversations and collaborations that take place through gatherings like the NAMI-NYS conference remind us that there is a large and committed community working toward stronger mental health systems.
I am grateful to be part of that community and to continue contributing to this work through clinical practice, education, advocacy, and leadership.
The work ahead is significant, but so is the collective commitment to improving mental health support for individuals, families, and communities across New York.
About the Author
Amira Martin-Saltsman, LCSW-R is a licensed clinical social worker, educator, and founder of MA Therapy, LLC. She earned her Master of Social Work from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College in 2001 and has spent her career working in clinical practice, mental health education, and community advocacy.
Professor Martin-Saltsman teaches at Columbia University School of Social Work and provides keynote presentations, workshops, and educational programs focused on mental health, emotional resilience, belonging, and community wellness.
She currently serves on the Board of Directors for NAMI-NYS and continues to advocate for expanded access to compassionate and culturally responsive mental health care.
Professionally, she has also served as the former Western New York Division Director for the National Association of Social Workers New York State Chapter, contributing to advocacy and professional leadership within the social work community.
Organizations, universities, and community groups interested in mental health keynote presentations, workshops, or collaborative programming can learn more by emailing her at: [email protected]
