To illustrate the need for us all to be attentive to the impact, she suggested that we could do with a similar focus on mental health as we get on public health at the regular media conferences held by premiers, ministers and chief health officers.

We hear advice at each of those conferences, on how wearing masks, hand hygiene and social distancing will help prevent COVID-19 infection and transmission.

And at this stage of the pandemic, she said, perhaps our health and political leaders should also be issuing daily alerts also for mental health care.

For them to say that if you have symptoms, like disturbed sleep for more than three nights, profound tearfulness over "nothing", if you're disengaging from things that usually make you happy, such as grandkids or hobbies, if you've stopped showering or getting dressed, "then call your GP".

It's an important and timely reminder of a toll that too often goes unnoticed, when we've got so much else to attend to.

I felt, as so many Victorians did this week, enormous relief at being able to lift out of lockdown, though many restrictions remain including - imagine reading this at any other time in our lives! - a continuing ban on people visiting our homes.

But I'm also mindful that so many people in New South Wales remain locked down or locked out. Cross-border communities too are living tumultuous lives, affecting their work, education, community connections and health care.

And, as relieved as we were in Victoria and South Australia this week, we know in our hearts there's every chance another outbreak will come before vaccination levels are high enough to provide protection.

And that's the heaviness of this ongoing pandemic, and what has mental health specialists talking about the "long haul" effects, not only physically for some from COVID-19 but mentally.

It's not surprising then that many of us are turning at the moment to the Tokyo Olympics, for some distraction and celebration.

But there too we are seeing a strong focus on mental health, on the pressures felt even by the physically fittest amongst us.

This week came the news from that the extraordinary Simone Biles would not be defending her Olympic title in the women's gymnastics all-around program, to focus on her mental health.

Like so many of us, USA Gymnastics applauded her courage, saying it showed "yet again, why she is a role model for so many".

Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka has also taken an important and courageous stand. She took a mental health break in the midst of the recent French Open before stepping once more into the international spotlight to light the Olympic cauldron at the Opening Ceremony last weekend.

In an opinion piece in Time magazine this week, she wrote that she feels uncomfortable "being the spokesperson or face of athlete mental health as it's still so new to me and I don't have all the answers". She said: "I do hope that people can relate and understand it's OK to not be OK, and it's OK to talk about it. There are people who can help, and there is usually light at the end of any tunnel."

Whether we talk about mental health issues under an Olympic spotlight, at a daily media conference, or quietly and personally to family, friends, colleagues, and, particularly, to our local GP or other health professional, it really is more than OK - it's critical. Especially now.

Angus Clelland is chief executive of Mental Health Victoria CEO.