Of the services provided by local governments, the only services specifically intended for children are the childcare service and alternative care service. These services are not provided to adults who need assistance.

Parents are entitled to child leave until the child with a disability reaches the age of 18, and once the child becomes an adult, child leave days can no longer be taken.

Among the services provided by the local government, the following are services for adults to support independent ability to cope:

• Domestic service– assistance to an adult person with household and other tasks.
• General care service provided outside home – for a person whose care needs cannot be met at home.
• Personal assistant service – for a person who needs physical assistance to cope independently. The personal assistant does not manage the person’s affairs alone, but the person and the personal assistant work together.
• Curatorship of adults – for a person who, because of mental or physical disability, needs help to exercise their rights and perform their responsibilities. In general, the caregiver will assist the person in those activities where the person needs help. For example, preparing meals, washing, accompanying the person to the physician, helping with household chores, etc.
  Both children and adults can receive the support person service and social transport service, but the conditions for receiving the service are, as a rule, different. If your child is receiving these services from the local government, it’s important to consult with your region’s child protection official to determine whether and under what conditions the service can continue once your child reaches adulthood.

For the most accurate overview, reach out to the social worker in your local area, who is best suited to provide information on support services for adults.

It is possible to receive carer’s leave for caring for a person with a profound disability. This means that if you are employed and your adult child has a profound disability, you, as a parent, are entitled to take up to five working days of carer’s leave each calendar year. It is important to note that only one person is entitled to take carer’s leave at a time. Carer’s leave is remunerated at the minimum wage.

All Estonian residents with a documented need for a technical aid receive the necessary technical aid with state support. No disability or work ability assessment is required for this.
The need for a technical aid is assessed by a doctor or specialist, who issues a certificate if needed. Based on this, the state covers part of the cost of the technical aid.
 

• For children up to age 18, the state reimburses 90% of the technical aid's price cap.
• For adults, the level of state support varies depending on the specific technical aid. See the technical aid search tool or the list of technical aids for more details.
• For subsistence benefit recipients, the state reimburses 95% of the technical aid's price cap.

If your child has reached the age of 16, ie working age, they are entitled to social rehabilitation services if

• they have no work ability or
• they have partial work ability or determined degree of severity of disability and are not working, studying, or registered as unemployed.

From age 16, an established degree of disability is no longer the sole basis for receiving the service – an additional in-person assessment of the need for the service, carried out by a Social Insurance Board senior specialist, is also required. The senior specialist will contact you once the application for the service has been submitted. 

Please note that if your child is working, studying, or registered as unemployed, you must apply to the Unemployment Fund for work-related rehabilitation if they need rehabilitation services. You can read more about this in the next section ‘Rehabilitation services for people of working age’.

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