NAMI in our own voice and NAMI smarts for advocacy: self-narrative as advocacy tool.

In his first Advocacy column for the Journal of Psychiatric Practice, the author discusses the importance and relevance of advocacy for all mental health professionals and researchers in whatever setting they work. Advocacy efforts can and have influenced a range of issues that are important to hospital-based and community psychiatrists, private practitioners, and researchers. The author then discusses the importance of personal self-narrative as a tool for decreasing stigma and increasing understanding of serious mental illness, with a focus on two programs developed by the National Alliance on Mental Illness: NAMI In Our Own Voice and NAMI Smarts for Advocacy.