Invisible Injuries at Work: Notes from Macau

Speaking at the Macau Psychology Association 2026 Annual Academic Conference, 24 October 2026.
在澳门心理学会 2026 年学术年会上演讲，2026 年 10 月 24 日。

FROM MACAU

On the afternoon of 24 October, at the Rio Hotel, Macau, I joined psychologists from Macau, Hong Kong and mainland China. I was there as a Malaysian Industrial & Organizational Psychologist, invited by the Macau Psychology Association (Associação de Psicologia de Macau) to speak at its 2026 Annual Academic Conference, which also marked the installation of the Association's 14th board. The conference theme was workplace mental health in the age of AI.

ON THE STAGE

My talk was titled "Invisible Occupational Injury in the Age of AI", and it followed one thread: from workplace trauma and burnout to a cultural path back to work. I opened with a slide from Invisible Disabilities Week 2026 that read "I Am Invisible No More".

Opening the talk with “I Am Invisible No More”.
演讲开场投影片：「I Am Invisible No More」。

I also wanted the room to hear about Malaysia. I spoke about the work the Malaysian Psychological Association (Persatuan Psikologi Malaysia, PSIMA) has been doing in recent years to develop psychology as a profession, and about where counselling and psychology in Malaysia now stand on the road to professionalisation. I shared, too, the workplace mental health and psychosocial risk management initiatives that DOSH, Malaysia's Department of Occupational Safety and Health, has been actively driving.

The academic discussion that closed the afternoon.
下午最后的学术讨论环节。

The programme also included Professor Luo Yuejia, President of the Chinese Psychological Society, on the development of psychology and talent in China, and Mills Wong, an organisational psychologist from Hong Kong, who asked what AI takes from us beyond our job skills. The afternoon closed with an academic discussion among the speakers.

A REFLECTION

What stays with me is how colleagues from different places responded. They were impressed by Malaysia's progress in developing the psychology profession, our counselling system and our work on mental health at work. Being able to let more international colleagues see the effort of Malaysia's psychology community means a great deal to me.

My sincere thanks to the Macau Psychology Association for the invitation and for such warm hospitality. I hope there will be many more exchanges between our regions, so that psychology can be put to practical use in workplaces and in society.

Saya Anak Malaysia.

Warmly, Dr Hiro Koo

If your organisation is beginning to look at psychosocial risk and how people return to work after a difficult season, I would be glad to talk it through with you. Psychosocial risk assessment at New Mind

FROM MACAU

10 月 24 日下午，我在澳门利澳酒店，与来自澳门、香港和中国内地的心理学同行交流。我受澳门心理学会邀请，以马来西亚工商与组织心理学家（Industrial & Organizational Psychologist）的身份，参加澳门心理学会 2026 年学术年会暨第十四届理监事就职礼。年会的主题是：AI 时代的职场心理健康解方。

ON THE STAGE

我的演讲题目是《AI 时代的隐形工伤：从职场创伤、倦怠到重返工作的文化之路》。开场的第一张投影片来自 Invisible Disabilities Week 2026，上面写着「I Am Invisible No More」。

我也想让在场的同行多认识马来西亚。我分享了马来西亚心理学会（Persatuan Psikologi Malaysia, PSIMA）近年来推动心理学专业发展的努力，以及马来西亚辅导与心理学专业化的概况和进展；也介绍了马来西亚职业安全与卫生局（DOSH）积极推动的职场心理健康与心理社会风险管理倡议。

同场还有中国心理学会理事长罗跃嘉教授，谈中国心理学科的发展与人才培养；香港组织心理学家黄仲远先生，则问了一个问题：除了职能，AI 还抢走了什么？下午最后是讲者们的学术讨论环节。

A REFLECTION

特别开心的是，各地同行对马来西亚在心理学专业发展、辅导制度和职场心理健康方面的进展留下了深刻印象。能让更多国际同行看见马来西亚心理学界的努力，对我来说是一件很有意义的事。

衷心感谢澳门心理学会的邀请与热情接待。期待未来有更多跨地区的专业交流与合作，一起推动心理学在职场与社会中的实际应用。

Saya Anak Malaysia。

Warmly, Dr Hiro Koo

如果你的机构也开始关注职场心理社会风险，或在思考员工如何在艰难时期后重返工作，欢迎和我聊一聊。了解 New Mind 的职场心理社会风险评估

International Psychology Conference 2026 (PSIMA)

Presented my research paper today at the International Psychology Conference 2026, organised by Persatuan Psikologi Malaysia together with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and HELP University.

My study examined traumatic stress exposure and burnout among 120 Malaysian corporate employees using the LEC 5 and Burnout Assessment Tool.

The findings suggest that the relationship between traumatic stress and burnout may be more complex and dimension specific than a simple “more trauma, more burnout” pattern.

The clearest signal appeared in exhaustion. The regression model for exhaustion was significant and explained 23.1% of the variance.

This leads to an important direction for future research.

I would like to explore this with larger and more diverse samples, while examining cumulative trauma exposure and moderators such as job demands, job resources, resilience, social support and perceived control.

I am also interested in whether subjective exhaustion always matches physiological regulation.

Some employees may become accustomed to chronic stress, underreport exhaustion, or experience reduced awareness of their own physiological load.

Future studies could therefore combine self report measures such as BAT with psychophysiological indicators such as heart rate variability and biofeedback derived regulation measures.

The question may not only be “How burned out is this employee?”

It may also be “What pattern of resource depletion is developing, what is maintaining it, and can we detect it before it progresses further?”

This is the direction I hope to continue exploring within Occupational Health Psychology.

#OccupationalHealthPsychology #Burnout #WorkplaceMentalHealth #PsychosocialRisk #TraumaInformed #IPC2026

Psychosocial Trained Person (PTP) Malaysia: PRISMA Workplace Psychosocial Risk Assessment Explained @ AiFM Radio Station

 

I recently had the opportunity to share my thoughts on RTM AiFM radio station on the topic of workplace mental health and psychosocial risk from an Industrial and Organizational Psychology perspective.

During the interview, I discussed the growing importance of psychosocial risk assessment in organisations, particularly in light of Malaysia’s PRisMA (Psychosocial Risk Assessment and Management at the Workplace) Guidelines 2024 introduced by DOSH.

As a DOSH-certified Psychosocial Trained Person (PTP), I also shared insights from my work supporting organisations in identifying and managing psychosocial risks, including key factors such as job demand, job control, and job support, and how these workplace conditions influence employee well-being, engagement, productivity, and burnout prevention. The conversation highlighted how organisations can build healthier and more sustainable workplaces by strengthening psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and organisational support systems.

I also shared another perspective on reframing this psychosocial risk assessment guideline as a training needs analysis approach, rather than viewing it solely as a way to fulfil legislative requirements. This perspective helps organisations identify their psychosocial risk areas and develop tailor-made interventions and training programmes that address their specific needs.

I strongly resonate with the Persatuan Psikologi Malaysia (PSIMA) movement in advocating that psychology should not remain confined to clinical settings, but should also extend its impact to the public health and workplace sectors, where it can contribute meaningfully to the well-being of society.

Contact us via +60167154419 (Whatsapp) or contact@brainhealthspecialist.com if you would like to know more about Psychosocial Trained Person (PTP) related services in psychosocial risk assessment or training.

PRisMA psychosocial risk assessment in Malaysia, led by a DOSH Psychosocial Trained Person, is explained on the main site.

Related corporate wellbeing training options are on the corporate wellbeing page.

Full Member of the Malaysia Psychological Association (PSIMA)

Hiro Koo is an ordinary/full member of the Malaysia Psychological Association (Persatuan Psikologi Malaysia).

Membership Certificate

Membership Certificate till 2023

Ahli Biasa / Ordinary Member / Full Member : Mempunyai latihan dan pengalaman dalam bidang psikologi atau siswazah universiti dalam bidang psikologi, psikologi perubatan, psikologi pendidikan atau lain-lain bidang yang sebahagian besar kursus –kursus psikologi dan telah bekerja sepenuh masa dalam bidang tersebut sepenuh masa selama 2 tahun ATAU seorang siswazah selain daripada bidang-bidang tersebut dan telah bekerja selama 4 tahun sepenuh masa dalam bidang psikologi; atau lainlain IPTA/IPTS dan telah bekerja dalam bidang psikologi selama 6 tahun.