Estonia

QualityRights – Estonia

Building on the work undertaken as part of the  WHO EURO project on adults with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities living in institutions in the European Region, Estonia has accomplished a number of critical milestones in its QualityRights activities including:

• The establishment of a national team by the Estonian Social Insurance Board to assess the quality of services provided in three large 24-hour institutions providing special care services.
• Assessment of the services using the WHO QualityRights Assessment Toolkit and methodology.
• QualityRights training on mental health, disability, human rights and recovery of representatives of the Social Insurance Board and the Ministry of Social Affairs to strengthen skills of the national assessment team to improve the quality of service delivery.
• In 2018-2019, the Estonian Social Insurance Board, in cooperation with the WHO Estonian Office, have collaborated in translating the WHO QualityRights e-training and the WHO QualityRights module on Transforming services and promoting human rights into Estonian, for wide dissemination throughout the country.

Launch of Estonian QualityRights e-training – 20 November 2019

On 19-20 November 2019, the 15th Annual Conference of the Estonian Social Workers’ Association was held, entitled “Valuing social work,  valuing people“.  The central session of the Conference, which was attended by 250 participants, was dedicated to the implementation of WHO QualityRights initiative in Estonia.

On the second day, a workshop for a group of 70 specialists from different services (service  providers, representatives from the municipalities, the national audit office and social insurance board) was held to demonstrate and officially launch the Estonian version of the QualityRights e-training platform.

The goal in making the QualityRights tools and e-training widely available across Estonia is to raise awareness of mental health issues among professionals and people in society at large, to reduce stigma and discrimination, and improving opportunities and ways to provide services for people with mental health conditions or psychosocial disabilities that respect their rights and promote their recovery

In December 2019 the e-training will be made available through the Social Insurance Board to a wider range of stakeholders.The aim is to create opportunities to raise awareness among professionals working with people all over Estonia and to integrate interactive e-training into human rights training programs.

Next steps

• Estonia QualityRights assessments reports (coming soon).
• Presentation of the QualityRights e-training to the Chancellor of Justice staff
• Presentation of the QualityRights e-training to the lead of curriculum for social workers at the Pärnu College,University of Tartu
• Mandatory completion of e-training for staff of Social Insurance Board, Department of Service
• Featuring the QualityRights e-training in the national Journal on Social Work 
• Meetings with educational facilities for social care specialists in order to discuss inclusion of the QualityRights e-training platform in their training on human rights
• Meeting of the Human Rights Council, held by the Chancellor of Justice, in order to present the QualityRights e-training (the Council consists of 50 members from different fields and representatives of NGOs, doctors, professors, people with disabilities).
• Presentation of the QualityRights e-training at the training for judges

Assessing and improving services in Estonia

• WHO QualityRights Assessment Tool Kit (Estonia)
• Interview Tool (Estonia)
• Review of documents & Observation Tool (Estonia)
• Facility-based Assessment Report (Estonia)
• Country-wide Assessment Report (Estonia)

National Promotional materials

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