Rachel Bannister

Rachel is co-founder and Chair of the charity Mental Health – Time for Action Foundation, campaigning for fully funded, holistic mental health care, and a long-time advocate for intensive community-based eating disorder treatment. She is a Peer Supported Open Dialogue (POD) practitioner with a PGCert (2024).

Rachel has spoken widely about her experience of caring for a daughter with an eating disorder including in a Channel 4 Documentary and BBC Radio 4. Her family’s experience of POD was featured in the Financial Times (January 2026). She has also written about her own experiences of depression and benzodiazepine dependence in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).