Niagara' Community Mental Health program is remembering clients who've passed away this year.

5 names are being added to a plaque at a ceremony in the Memorial Forest at the Glenridge Quarry in Thorold Thursday afternoon.

Program Manager Peggy Detlor tells 610 CKTB News the dedication honours clients who struggled with mental health problems.  But the ceremony also aims to reduce the stigma attached to mental illness.

Detlor says the goal is for family members who've lost love ones suffering from a mental illness, to be able to talk about the way they passed in the same way they might discuss the death of someone who died of cancer or diabetes.

Detlor says there's been more focus in recent years on mental illness, something 1 in 5 Canadians will struggle with at some point in their lives.