This Program Was Meant to Help the Mentally Ill. Instead, It's Hurt a Lot of Them.

Over the last four years, New York has moved hundreds of severely mentally ill people out of institutions and into private apartments in an attempt to improve their quality of life. But an investigation by media organizations ProPublica and Frontline found that many of those people were not prepared to live independently.

ProPublica reporter Joaquin Sapien said one of those patients, Abraham Clemente, had been living in squalor and isolation after he was transferred to his own apartment.

"He told us that he thought he could crush and smoke his anti-psychotic medication to achieve its intended effect," Sapien said in an interview with WNYC host Jami Floyd. "He was clearly in a really, really rough state, and the service providers seemed at a loss."

Clemente eventually returned to a group home. But Sapien said the problems with how the state has run the system runs deep — namely that until recently, it didn't have a way to keep track of serious issues that arose with clients after they began living on their own. The New York Department of Health and Office of Mental Health says of the 764 people who have moved so far, 32 have died and another 39 have returned to group homes. But Sapien says those figures do not reflect a host of problems these clients could run into.

"We don't have, for instance, the number of people that have become homeless," said Sapien. "Or the number of people who might be incarcerated. Or the number of people who have transitioned into a higher level of care."

For the full interview, click "Listen."