"anchor in a changing society''.

The Hon. Mrs. Justice Wade told dozens of workers at the Department of Health and Social Services' Long Service Awards luncheon that they played a vital role in the life of Bermuda.

This could be noted in the growth of the department.

The report for the department in 1972 showed that there was a total of 72 officers and a budget of $2.5 million, while today's figures revealed a total of 288 officers and a staggering budget of $25 million -- a ten-fold increase.

The department should be recognised, Mrs. Justice Wade stressed, because of the commitment to caring for the elderly in an age when youth is esteemed, and where age is "at best denied, and at worst despised''.

Mrs. Justice Wade said: "It is within the Department of Health and Social Services that the expertise of being your brother's keeper is publicly put to practise.'' She noted that the officers of the department, more than any other public servants, had the opportunity to positively affect the lives of the less advantaged in our society and to care for them.

She said that a number of serious social issues placed a strain on the department's resources and its various agencies and organisations.

The increasing availability of illicit drugs, the AIDS crisis, the growing number of teenage pregnancies, and the recent recession were a few of the contributing factors, she said.

And these issues would force the policymakers in the department to make tough priority choices.

But above all, Mrs. Wade said, the main responsibility of the department was to ensure that the dignity of human life was maintained.