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Social rehabilitation for persons of working age and old-age pensioners

If you need support and help in your daily activities due to your health condition, at the rehabilitation service, a team of several specialists will teach and advise you, your relatives and network to support your coping.

To whom?

Do you need support and help in your daily activities due to your health condition? Do you find it difficult to cope and manage in everyday life? Do you have difficulties communicating, moving outside, working or studying? Do you have several problems that cannot be solved with the help of individual services (e.g. support person, rehabilitation, carer, personal assistant), but require the intervention of specialists from several disciplines, i.e. a rehabilitation team? At the social rehabilitation service, a team consisting of several specialists teaches and advises you, your relatives and the network to support your coping. You will be supported by a social rehabilitation team, which includes up to ten different specialists - a social worker, a special pedagogue, a speech therapist, a psychologist, a creative therapist, an occupational therapist, a physiotherapist, an experience counselor, a nurse and a doctor.

If you are of working age, you can receive the social rehabilitation service if:

  • you have no work ability
  • you have partial work ability or a disability or a percentage of loss of capacity for work or with a category of disability who are not active in the field of work, i.e. who are not employed, are neither studying nor registered as unemployed at the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund

If you are of retirement age, you can receive the social rehabilitation service if

  • you have severity of a disability determined.

Persons suffering from a primary psychosis are also entitled to the service if the medical institution identifies a need for rehabilitation. 

The service is provided by partners of the Social Insurance Board, and if there is no service provider near your home, travel and accommodation expenses will be reimbursed.


How to receive?

You need to apply for the service. You can find the application form for social rehabilitation service here. .

The application can be submitted in several different ways. Use the one that suits you:

While all persons with disabilities can apply for social rehabilitation services, only those who have a need for rehabilitation services are eligible.

However, before submitting a request, think about whether the service is really necessary, i.e. whether you have several coping limitations due to your health condition that cannot be eliminated by other measures (e.g. rehabilitation, aids, etc.).

We will review an application for social rehabilitation service for persons of working age and old-age pensioners and make a referral decision or a refusal decision within 40 working days. This time includes assessment of rehabilitation needs and making a decision. We will issue a decision within 10 working days of the assessment.

Maximum cost of the service per calendar year

Person of working age and old-age pensioner can receive social rehabilitation services for a total of up to EUR 1275 per calendar year. If the service is provided as a programme, the limit is up to EUR 1800 per calendar year. 

Working-age person with a mental disorder is entitled to the annual limit of up to EUR 4300 per calendar year.

Within the overall annual limit, there is a separate annual limit for the physiotherapist service. You can use the remaining services, if necessary, until the annual limit is reached.

Organisation of social rehabilitation services

Persons of working age

  1. You have a previously assessed extent of work ability or the determined degree of disability or percentage of loss of work ability
  2. Submit the application for rehabilitation service to the Estonian National Social Insurance Board
  3. The Estonian National Social Insurance Board checks your eligibility for the service and then assesses your rehabilitation needs
  4. The Estonian National Social Insurance Board issues a referral decision when the need for social rehabilitation is established
  5. You can stay on the service waiting list for up to 1 year
  6. When your turn comes, the Estonian National Social Insurance Board will send you a notice that you can contact the service provider
  7. Contact the service provider within 60 days and agree on a time to receive the service
  8. You will receive a service in accordance with the Estonian National Social Insurance Board’s action plan, rehabilitation plan or programme.
  9. The service provider assesses the performance of the service with you
  10. Give the service provider a confirmation of the services you have received

Old-age pensioners

  1. You have a previously determined degree of disability
  2. Submit the application for rehabilitation service to the Estonian National Social Insurance Board
  3. The Estonian National Social Insurance Board assesses your rehabilitation needs
  4. The Estonian National Social Insurance Board issues a referral decision when the need for social rehabilitation is established
  5. You can be on the waiting list for up to 1 year
  6. When your turn comes, the Estonian National Social Insurance Board will send you a notice that you can contact the service provider
  7. Contact the service provider within 60 days and agree on a time to receive the service
  8. You will receive the service in accordance with the Estonian National Social Insurance Board's action plan, rehabilitation plan or programme.
  9. The service provider assesses the performance of the service with you
  10. Give the service provider a confirmation of the services you have received.

Assessment of rehabilitation needs

During the rehabilitation needs assessment, the services consultant will explain the purpose of the rehabilitation service, which specialists will provide the services, and what your role is. The consultant will also help you choose a rehabilitation service provider.

We have experienced that people often do not know what services are available for a person with special needs at all and how to apply for them, and are therefore left unaided. That is why we will also explain to you the possibilities of applying for other services – such as local government social services, special care services, health services, etc.

The assessment of the need for rehabilitation also provides the state with information about the needs of disabled people and what services need to be developed. The people who have carried out the assessment of the need for rehabilitation themselves greatly appreciate the fact that they have been given the opportunity to talk about their situation.

Your rehabilitation needs will be assessed by a services consultant who will contact you to agree on a time and place to meet.

As a general rule, the assessment of the need for rehabilitation is carried out in a customer service office of the Estonian National Social Insurance Board, where conditions enabling privacy and uninterrupted conversation have been created for this purpose. In justified cases, for example, if you find it significantly difficult to come to a meeting due to a disability-induced mobility barrier or other special need, it is possible that the services consultant will come to your home, health care or social care institution. Inform us in the application for rehabilitation services about special needs which preclude you from coming to the Estonian National Social Insurance Board to assess the need for rehabilitation, and tell the consultant if you agree to meet.

Please allow up to 2 hours for the assessment. You can come with an escort – a family member, support person or friend who knows you and can help answer questions, or simply encourage you to talk about your problems.

In the course of the conversation, we will ask you about the difficulties you have in the main areas of your life due to your health condition (cognition, mobility, self-care, communication, daily activities at home and at work/school, and participation in social life, etc.). If necessary, we will collect additional information from other people in your support network, such as your family members, local government social worker, family physician, or employer.

Together, you will discuss whether you need a social rehabilitation service, or whether you need other help – for example, local government services, support services at school for basic education, rehabilitation, etc.

If, as a result of the assessment, it becomes evident that you need a social rehabilitation service, we will find out whether there is a rehabilitation programme suitable for you or whether we will prepare an action plan that meets your needs. The assessment may indicate that you do not need rehabilitation services.

In the following, we explain with examples why one person with the same disease or condition (joint disorders) needs rehabilitation services and the other does not.

Example 1: A person has a chronic joint disease that has lasted for years, but has not worsened recently, and the person has not received surgical treatment. The person has been using rehabilitation services in spa-type facilities for many years, including acquiring gymnastics programmes prepared especially for them and receiving various counselling sessions. The person can handle everyday tasks because the home environment is adapted and the necessary technical aids are available. The reason why the person wants rehabilitation services is because he or she wants to receive therapeutic or spa treatments (massage, different types of baths, mud therapy, electrotherapy, paraffin therapy) that the person claims to have benefited from.

In the case described, the person does not need a social rehabilitation service because the person is coping with everyday life and the rehabilitation service would not increase their coping. Procedures that a person considers necessary are not covered by social rehabilitation services.

Example 2: a chronic joint disease of many years’ standing has continuously worsened, and surgery has recently been performed. The person is unable to carry on with their daily activities in the same way and therefore suffers from low mood and fear of coping. All this has led to a significant deterioration in coping. The person is also unaware of the possibilities of home adaptation and the various technical aids available to help them cope. Therefore, the person needs counselling, an assessment of the need for adaptations to technical aids and their home environment, training in different coping skills and the use of technical aids. This is provided by a comprehensive rehabilitation service, including a physiotherapist, an occupational therapist, a psychologist, and a social worker.

In this case, the person is likely to need a social rehabilitation service, as the health condition severely limits their ability to cope with everyday life and rehabilitation services can help improve independent coping.

NB!

We assess the rehabilitation needs of each person individually, because people with the same illness or condition cope differently.

The assessment is based on your ability to cope and your needs.

We will send you the results of the assessment together with the decision.

Last updated: 23.03.2023

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