An annual commemoration that we wish no longer had to exist — but draws attention to the importance of discussing mental health issues — was held this week.

The Grapevine Center’s annual Remembrance and Celebration of Life Rally drew about 75 people Wednesday to Alameda Park.

The event was aimed at eliminating the stigma associated with mental health issues and remembering 11 people who frequented the center and died in the past year.

The center provides important services to the community, helping those who struggle with mental illness, addiction and homelessness. It provides a space where people can socialize or pursue recovery.

Some of those honored lost their lives to addiction, while others succumbed to other struggles. But what is common among them is that they will not be forgotten.

The center’s ceremony is a heartbreaking, but necessary, annual event. A 2019 study by the National Alliance on Mental Illness noted that 20.6% of U.S. adults experience mental illness per year. That equals 51.5 million people.

An estimated 5.2% percent of U.S. adults — or 13.1 million people — experience serious mental health illness each year.

The Grapevine Center’s services are vital to the community as organizations of its type are instrumental in communities around the nation. The National Institute on Drug Abuse found that more than 70,000 Americans died from overdoses — including illicit drugs and prescription opioids — in 2019.

As many as 93,000 died from overdoses during 2020’s COVID-19 year of isolation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported, and Pennsylvania’s rate rose 16% — with 5,172 overdose deaths — that year.

And the CDC found, in 2019, that suicide was the 10th leading cause of death, claiming the lives of 47,500 people.

In other words, there are many people who suffer from substance abuse or mental health issues that places like the Grapevine Center combat.

It is horrible that the center has to have a ceremony every year to commemorate the lives of those lost to these battles, but it is important that it does.

It provides a support network to those left behind, sends a message that these lives lost won’t be forgotten and lets the community know that, as Beacon Health Options’ vice president of clinical services Debra Luther put it, “The survival of one person depends on the support of everyone.”

Many people struggle with mental health issues. There’s no shame in that. There should be no stigma in talking about it. We are grateful to the center for providing this important reminder.

— NCD