Moving People Out of Nursing Homes Proves Difficult, Despite Federal Funding

BALTIMORE -- After nearly two years in a Baltimore nursing home, Sonia Savage was eager to leave. She was in her late 20s, surrounded by older people and feeling “it wasn’t a place for me.”
Savage had suffered a traumatic brain injury, a stroke and broken bones after being struck by a car in 2009 while crossing the street with her 7-year-old daughter, who died after the crash. Now 30 years old, she still uses a wheelchair and walker but is in her own house, outfitted for the handicapped. “It was a new beginning,” said Savage.
Savage is one of 1,336 disabled or elderly low-income Marylanders who as of early July had moved out of nursing homes and other institutional settings as part of a national program called Money Follows the Person. The goal is to return them to the community.