Estonia restores chaplain hotline — ERR News
Starting Friday, September 25, Estonia is restoring a telephone line for emotional and spiritual support via the short number 126. Volunteers will take calls daily from 7 p.m. until midnight. The line is being restored amid consistently high demand for emotional assistance by phone and online, ERR News reports.
Help with loneliness and anxiety
According to the Estonian Social Insurance Board, victim support services received nearly 1,000 contacts per month in the first half of 2026. People most often seek help because of loneliness, anxiety, as well as relationship or family problems.
The chaplain line was first launched in June 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The non-profit Tartu Academy of Theology acted as coordinator of the crisis service. Its director, Siimon Haamer, said that by the end of 2020, the service was receiving 600 to 700 calls per month, while by the end of March 2022, the number of contacts had reached about 1,000 per month. Another approximately 1,000 people were unable to get through because only one chaplain was on duty at a time.
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Number 126 and funding
In 2023, the Social Insurance Board merged the chaplain line with its mental health support service. The following summer, separate chaplain consultations were discontinued due to budget cuts and comparatively low demand. At the same time, in 2024, the service recorded more than 3,000 calls, with more than four-fifths of them coming from people who were not calling for the first time.
The short number 126 was transferred to the chaplain service by Hingeabi Assotsiatsioon Usaldus, an organization that ended its long-running hotline last year. According to Haamer, about 30 professionally trained chaplains will work shifts. The service's annual budget now stands at €25,000, with costs covered by the Tartu Academy of Theology. Previously, the Ministry of Social Affairs allocated nearly a quarter of a million euros per year to the service.
The ministry said that state funding had been focused on the nationwide victim support line 116 006 and the emotional support line 116 123.
