Care providers bring 300 empty chairs to parliament protest

Providers of special care services brought 300 empty chairs outside Estonia’s parliament on Friday to highlight the sector’s deepening funding crisis and shortage of activity supervisors, ERR reported.

The chairs symbolised people already receiving special care services, clients waiting for access and service providers. The organisers, the Association of Special Care Service Providers, said the largely invisible sector continues operating until it can no longer cope.

“An empty chair does not do the work,” the association said in a statement, calling for activity supervisors to be valued and given the resources to provide people with the support they need every day.

The protest also featured a large symbolic invoice banner calling for sustainable funding for special care and highlighting society’s responsibility to people who need assistance and support to exercise their rights. The sector needs nearly 200 million euros over four years, according to the association.

More than a few hundred people from across Estonia gathered outside parliament at the beginning of September to draw attention to underfunding and its impact on people with special needs, their families and sector workers.

Nearly 2,000 people are currently waiting for special care services.