She rose to managerial positions in hospitals and served as chair of the board of directors of an Eindhoven network of primary healthcare centers starting in 2010.

Helder became director of tanteLouise, a major provider of elderly care in the Bergen op Zoom area, seven years later and was involved in a number of projects to renovate existing and construct new nursing homes.

When the fourth Rutte cabinet was formed, Helder was asked to join as Minister for Long-term Care and Sport on behalf of the centre-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD).

[2] Helder left UMCU in July 2010 to become chair of the board of directors of the Eindhoven Corporation of Primary Health Care Centers (SGE).

[8][9] Helder started serving as director of tanteLouise, an elderly care provider active in Bergen op Zoom, Steenbergen, and Woensdrecht, in June 2017.

[16] Plans to tear down most of Huize St. Catharina in Bergen op Zoom in order to build a new facility faced some resistance due to the perceived historical value of the complex from 1929.

[11] A few months before, a new nursing home of tanteLouise for dementia patients called Hof van Nassau had opened in Steenbergen, featuring several technological innovations such as GPS trackers to allow inhabitants to roam around more freely.

It drew attention from the BBC, CCTV, and a delegation from Tsinghua University, and Helder joined Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport Hugo de Jonge on a working visit to China.

[22] Together with other leaders of healthcare organizations in North Brabant, Helder established the Regionaal Overleg Niet Acute Zorg (RONAZ; Regional consultation of non-acute care) the following month.

[26][27] Despite precautions, several nursing homes of tanteLouise experienced outbreaks of the coronavirus including Het Nieuwe ABG, where the army assisted and where 29 out of 168 inhabitants died in late 2020.

The supervisory board stated that the move was necessitated by increasingly complex elderly care, innovations, and major real estate projects.

[21][32] She drew attention to shortages in nursing homes of personal protective equipment at the start of the first wave of infections and of personnel in later stages, when many employees were absent after having contracted the virus.

[37] Helder became Minister for Long-term Care and Sport in January 2022 as part of the new fourth Rutte cabinet on behalf of the center-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD).

Helder planned to achieve this goal through health care prevention, additional housing for the elderly, and technological innovations such as videotelephony and robots.

[44] With her appointment as minister, Helder took over an investigation into a €100 million sale of imported face masks to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic by TV pundit and activist Sywert van Lienden and two accomplices.

[47][48] She admitted that De Jonge had asked for the release, and she apologized following criticism from opposition parties that she only informed the House at his request after initially refusing to do so.

[55] The House of Representatives subsequently declared the topic of budget cuts for elderly care controversial, meaning the cabinet could no longer make decisions on it.