Dame Ruth Runciman DBE (née Hellman; 9 January 1936) is a former Chair of the UK Mental Health Act Commission. She attended the Rodean School, Johannesburg and graduated from Witwatersrand University, also in Johannesburg, earning her baccalaureate degree. In the UK, she matriculated at Girton College, Cambridge University. She served for more than three decades with the Citizens Advice Bureau and made significant contributions to work on drug misuse, for which she was awarded the OBE in 1991, which was later elevated to DBE for services to mental health.