Putting Both a Person and People First

We draw on recent work on peer-supported recovery to explore the roles respectively of values-based practice and of its African-enhanced form, Batho Pele , in co-production and other positive practice initiatives in mental health. Interdependence, as the aim of peer-supported recovery, is set in context first with the dependence of asylum hospital care and then with the independence of community care. Each has positive and negative aspects reflecting the diversity of values in mental health. We then show how the resources of values-based practice support effective engagement with diversity of values. The traditional formulation of values-based practice, focusing mainly on individual values, has limitations when applied to the individual-community values of interdependence. Here, Batho Pele comes into play. Building on the combined individual-community values of the African concept of ubuntu, Batho Pele offers a novel resource for interdependence in peer-supported recovery practice and other areas of co-productive positive mental health practice.