For over two decades Rosheena Masters’ passion has been improving the lives of Bermuda’s older generation.Mrs Masters is the administrator at senior residential facility Lefroy House in Somerset.She was honoured, for her efforts, with a Public Health Professional Award by the Ministry of Health earlier this month.Said Health Minister Zane DeSilva at that ceremony: “This individual has worked in long-term care for many years and has demonstrated a commitment to assisting the older population through dedicated service.”Mrs Masters went to Lefroy as a nursing supervisor in 1989, intending to stay one day to help the matron who was a friend. She fell in love with the place, and ended up staying for the next 23 years.“I worked at King Edward Memorial Hospital VII for ten years before coming to Lefroy House,” she said. “I worked in every aspect of the hospital and I ended up on the medical floor where I became interested in patients with dementia. There weren’t many nurses at Lefroy House back then. I applied for a job here. What I liked was, on the day of my interview, I walked in and there was the smell of gingerbread baking. I could see so many things we could do to enrich the lives of the people that live here.”In 1990 she was made the assistant matron, and in 1995 she became the administrator. Between 2003 and 2011 she was instrumental in helping government design the Sylvia Richardson Care Facility in St George’s based on what was in place at Lefroy House.“In 1998 there was a focus put on long-term care when the [Progressive Labour Party] came into power,” she said. “The focus was to change the philosophy of care and make Lefroy more home-like and a place that nurtured the spirit of elderly people. [Then Premier] Dame Jennifer Smith was the Member of Parliament for St George’s. She was the driving force behind building the Sylvia Richardson Care Facility. There was a study done that showed there was a void of rest homes in the eastern end of the Island.“I was involved from looking at rest homes abroad, to the development of the architectural work, decorating, and choosing staff. It was a very good experience. That was under the leadership of Dr John Cann, the Chief Medical Officer.”The physical structure of long-term care is changing today and there has to be a philosophical and cultural shift in attitudes towards geriatric care, Mrs Masters said.“When I trained to be a nurse, geriatrics was the place where you went to retire or if you were not considered a good nurse,” she said. “All of that has changed. Geriatric care is now one of the fastest moving care areas in the medical profession. What is different about geriatric care is that older people get sick very differently. They handle chronic illnesses differently. There is a convergence of health and social needs.”Mrs Masters said when dealing with the elderly, relationships are always very important. You have to know the person first before making decisions about their healthcare and what they would want, if they can’t speak for themselves.“What I like about Lefroy is that it is a very warm environment,” she said. “The staff stay for a long time. We don’t have a lot of staff changeover. They care about their elders. It is like a family here with its ups and downs. I think we have lots of freedom in terms of being able to make suggestions to the government about what long-term care should look like. We are a leader for long-term care on the Island. We were the only government’s only long-term care facility before Sylvia Richardson.”Mrs Masters would like to see Lefroy’s master development plan up and running in the next five years. A historic building is part of the Lefroy complex and they would like to renovate this and use it to house all public areas, such as physiotherapy, dining and recreation. They would also like to renovate the rooms where people live.“I would like to see Lefroy become a registered Eden Alternative home,” she said. “Eden Alternative is a philosophy of care that believes that older people do not die from chronic illness, but from loneliness, helplessness and boredom. They aim to turn places of institutional care into places worth living in. The main way to eradicate this is to give them opportunities for companionship, fun, and spontaneity.”Mrs Masters said she would like to see long-term care on the Island developed even more because seniors will soon outnumber the working population.Mrs Masters is married to Randy and they have two grown children, Kyle and Daryl, and a three-month-old granddaughter, Della.Away from her job, she is very active in her church, Cornerstone Bible Fellowship.Useful website: www.edenalt.org/.