[Patient navigation in severe mental illness-challenges, models, and perspectives]

Severe mental illness (SMI) is associated with chronic courses, significant functional impairments, and increased mortality. At the same time, care for this population is characterized by fragmentation, lack of continuity, and insufficient coordination. Against this background, patient navigation has gained importance as an approach to improving the quality and efficiency of care. The aim of this narrative review is to present key evidence-based models of care for individuals with SMI, to analyze structural challenges in service provision, and to derive principles for effective patient navigation.The evidence shows that community-based, multidisciplinary, and continuous care approaches-such as assertive community treatment, crisis intervention, and early intervention programs-can improve clinical and functional outcomes, reduce hospitalizations, and enhance continuity of care. At the same time, it becomes clear that the isolated implementation of individual intervention models is insufficient to sustainably address structural deficits.Integrated and stepped care models enable the systematic linkage of evidence-based interventions along a continuous care pathway. Current findings indicate that such approaches can improve quality of care while being implementable without additional costs and may even generate cost savings. Patient navigation thus represents a key strategy to strengthen continuity of care, reduce fragmentation, and sustainably improve patient outcomes as well as resource efficiency.