Forging Paths Together
Social work training, supervision and consultancy.
About Five Plus Two
The idea of Five Plus Two comes from the Bible gospel on five loaves and two fish – a miracle that fed more than 5000 from just five loaves and two fish.
At Five Plus Two, we come together, bringing our gifts, talents, and experiences to co-create new experiences to benefit many, the multiplier effect like how five loaves and two fish fed multitudes. Five Plus Two hopes to be the lighthouse to provide guidance, clarity and a beacon of knowledge illuminating and forging paths together with our clients towards change, growth, and fulfillment.
About the Founder
“How would you respond to a patient who is asking if he/she is dying?”
“I would ask my patient ‘What are your concerns about dying?’”
This was one of the first few exchanges with my supervisor as a newly joined medical social worker at Tan Tock Seng Hospital in 2001, after returning from a 4-year stay in USA - 2 years obtaining the Master degree in Social Work and 2 years working as a Social Worker upon graduating. With that response, I was placed in the Palliative Care unit to start my medical social work journey. I suppose at that time, my supervisor had seen in me the courage to hold difficult yet essential conversations around serious illnesses, life, and death.
Ever since, I have had the opportunity to learn from the many patients I am privileged to journey with. Under the tutelage of Terry Altilio at the then Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, I completed my fellowship in Palliative Social Work, and was also invited as a co-author for a chapter in the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Social Work.
My 30 years of social work experience has allowed me to hone my skills as a clinician, a supervisor, a trainer, a mentor, and a leader. Among others, I was awarded several Service Champion Awards for my clinical work, Outstanding Clinical Mentor Award as a supervisor and mentor, Excellence in Action leadership award and the National Day Award (Commendation Medal). In 2011, I received the Outstanding Social Worker Award, the highest accolade locally, in recognition of my contributions to the patients, and the profession in Palliative Social Work. Other areas of my specialization include End-of-Life Care, Advance Care Planning, Grief and Bereavement Care, Groupwork and Community Work.
Our Services
Psycho-Emotional-Spiritual Care
Direct psycho-emotional and spiritual care for people facing life-limiting illnesses and their family members. It can involve
- Conducting an assessment.
- Formulating and implementing an intervention plan.
- Monitoring and reviewing the effectiveness of the intervention.
Clinical Supervision / Supervision of Supervision
- Using a systemic approach and reflexive practice, this is a collaborative process that provides for critical processing of the supervisee’s clinical work. It facilitates a supervisee to develop his/her competency with the aim to improve the quality and effectiveness of his/her clinical practice.
- Supervision of supervision provides the space for supervisors to enhance their competencies in supervisory practice.
- Supervision can be offered for an individual or a group (including multi-disciplinary team).
Training and Consultancy
- Certified in the WSQ Advance Certificate in Learning and Performance (ACLP), the training is conducted using principles in adult learning with competency-based assessment.
- Training and consultancy can be offered in the following areas:
- Health social work
- Palliative social work and end-of-life care
- Groupwork
- Community Work
- Facilitation and communication skills
- Grief and bereavement
- Service Development
- Leadership building and change management
Clients
Abilities Beyond Limitations and Expectations (ABLE)
All Saints Home
Assisi Hospice
Dover Park Hospice
IDHealth | Happee Hearts Movement
Lentor Health
Methodist Welfare Services
National Heart Center Singapore
Raffles Hospital
Singapore Anglican Community Services
St Luke’s Hospital
Tzu-Chi Foundation (Singapore)
Woodlands Health Campus
Testimonials
Tzer Wee is a counselor with a heart. I was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer January 22 and she has counseled and helped me in dealing with the devastating news. She was professional and patient in our initial engagement and provided me with much needed advice and support in coming to terms with the situation and how to move forward and continue to live my life meaningfully. Since then, she has continued to keep in touch and checked on me regularly to ensure that I am well emotionally and psychologically. Thanks Tzer Wee!Ang Seow Lian
Tzer Wee has provided my team and I dedicated and supportive supervision in both individual and group settings for the past 3 years. She consistently offers guidance, support, and constructive feedback, and is accessible and approachable when we face unexpected challenges. Her extensive knowledge and experience in social work have been invaluable, and her style of supervision has empowered and motivated us to be better clinicians.Tang En, Medical Social Worker
Tzer Wee is a very empowering supervisor. She is empathetic and encouraging that I look forward to any individual and group supervision sessions with her! She assesses and communicates clearly. She is concrete in her examples and techniques when she demonstrates and easy to understand. At the same time her experience with various systems and contexts means she offers practical but illuminating feedback or interventions.Alice Choo, Medical Social Worker
Engaging the consultancy service of Tzer Wee has been the best investment for Medical Social Services at NHCS.
From day one, Tzer Wee consistently extended her support, knowledge and experience in Local Area Coordination (LAC) to guide the department towards adapting LAC principles to curate a programme for our Heart Failure population, relevant to this population’s needs and local healthcare context. Her professional, insightful and creative inputs, helped the department develop a proof of concept called Local Area Coordination and Empowerment (LACE) Programme to empower heart failure patients in the community. LACE has received positive reviews from stakeholders in the healthcare fraternity and community to scale and proliferate similar models of care for patients to live well and live long in the community. Additionally, LACE has been recognized at several platforms -SingHealth Allied Health Innovative Practice Awards 2022, Ground up and Emerging Award, and first prize at the Singapore Healthcare Management Congress 2022, under patient category. For more information on LACE, co-created with Tzer Wee, click here for more information.
As our experience with Tzer Wee has been positive, productive and generative, we reengaged her services to help coach and journey with us towards phase 2 of the LACE programme, titled Activation Based Community Development.
If you need a consultant to help you develop a proof of concept (POC), clearly define the concept or idea you want to develop, solve social and/community problems or capitalize opportunities for community development, together with setting specific and measurable objectives for your POC, Tzer Wee is the person to engage.
Genevieve Wong, Head - Medical Social Services
National Heart Centre Singapore