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The health economic evaluation of community mental health interventions can contribute to an optimization of the allocation of mental health care resources. Existing studies on the health economic evaluation of community mental health interventions include a wide range of treatment options from the deinstitutionalization of long-term inpatients into community-based services to specialized services for specific patient groups. The results of these studies indicate that community-based mental health care is not generally less costly in comparison to more institutionalized forms of care. Programs that are based on the ACT approach have been found to be more efficient than inpatient care. Compared to the current standard of mental health care in most western European countries, an intensification of community mental health interventions could increase the efficiency of psychiatric treatment especially for heavy users and first episode patients. However, methodological flaws and a lack of national studies limit the validity of current health economic investigations, particularly for Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]