“The head is connected to the body.”

“There is no health without mental health.”

These sentences sum up an exciting concept that is circulating in health care circles: the integration of physical and mental health care.

This means, for example, that when you go to your medical provider, he/she would inquire about your mental health — asking specific questions to see if you might be struggling with depression, suffering from excessive anxiety or experiencing symptoms of a more serious mental health condition such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.

This means that obstetricians would check to see if patients are suffering from post-partum depression, which can have serious consequences for the mother-child relationship and the child’s development. Currently, less than 12 percent of women who have post-partum depression receive treatment.

It means that pediatricians would regularly screen for behavioral health and get a child help before problems escalate, the child becomes harder to treat and parents become desperate.

It means that medical providers who treat the elderly would check to see if their patients have depression. Tragically, most elderly people who die by suicide saw their doctor the same day, the same week, or the same month before they died.

It means that your annual physical check-up is a mental health check-up as well. Not only is your provider exploring your body’s health, but also your mind’s health.

It means that if you have diabetes, Parkinson’s, cancer, HIV/AIDS or have suffered a stroke or heart attack, you will be routinely screened for depression. With every one of these illnesses, there is a 25-50 percent chance of increased depression, which can profoundly affect recovery.

People with severe and persistent mental illness die 25 years younger than those without mental illness. A major reason is that they do not receive adequate health care. So this new focus on treating both mind and body will mean that medical providers would be on-site at mental health clinics to address these patients’ health care needs.

The converse would be true also. Ideally, in the not-too-distant future, if you are at a medical clinic and the screening suggests that you have a mental health disorder, you will be able to obtain mental health treatment where you are. Your providers would be under one roof. This is already happening at Hawaii’s community health centers.

Or, if you were at a private practitioner’s medical office, it would have a close network of trusted mental health referrals to offer you and someone to coordinate your care.

In any given year, 1 in 4 of us experiences a diagnosable mental health disorder, and 1 in 10 children does. One in 4 families has at least one member with a mental health disorder. Mental illness affects all of us. And yet, two-thirds of those who suffer from mental health disorders remain untreated.

And untreated mental illness can lead to tragedy — suicide, life-long suffering and disability, family devastation and, sometimes, violence (although we must be clear: only 4 percent of people with mental illness are actually violent).

In recent years there have been unspeakably tragic mass murders that were committed mostly by young men who had unrecognized, undiagnosed and untreated mental illness.

After each one of these tragedies, an outcry arose about the need to improve mental health care and treatment, especially early identification. But people forgot, budgets were reduced and little changed.

Today, as our health care system is transformed, it appears that mental health care will improve and that people will be treated earlier.

The integration of physical and mental health care will benefit all of us — those of us who have mental health challenges, those of us with family members and friends us who have mental illness and need help.

We can make a quantum leap forward as a community by taking ownership of the issue together for the improved health of everyone.

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On vacation: “On Politics” columnist Richard Borreca is on vacation.