Sylwia Górska

Dr Sylwia Górska is a Lecturer in the Division of Occupational Therapy and Arts Therapies at Queen Margaret University (QMU) in Edinburgh, Scotland. She joined QMU's Division of Occupational Therapy and Arts Therapies in 2011 for a research role and became part of the teaching team in 2020, where she contributes to undergraduate and MSc courses in Occupational Therapy.

Dr Górska's educational background includes:

• MSc in Occupational Therapy from Queen Margaret University (2010)
• MA in Psychology from Warsaw University (2002)

Her primary research interests focus on the bio-psycho-social determinants of health and wellbeing, particularly examining the experience of chronic illness and its impact on participation and adaptation. Through her doctoral research, she explored dementia from a complexity theory perspective. She has extensive professional experience working with people of various ages living with chronic conditions including physical disability, learning disability, and mental health challenges. Her current research activity centers on the resilience of older people living in the community.

Dr Górska's publication record demonstrates a consistent trajectory in dementia care research, with recent work emphasizing resilience measurement and community-based interventions for older adults. Her publications often employ narrative research methods and complexity theory frameworks, with several collaborative studies focused on the Making it CLEAR questionnaire as a resilience assessment tool for elderly populations.

Her professional affiliations include:

• Health and Care Professions Council
• British Association of Occupational Therapists
• Royal College of Occupational Therapists
• Full Member of Centre for Applied Social Sciences at QMU

As an educator, Dr Górska serves as a personal academic tutor, master's dissertation supervisor, and is a member of the divisional Research and Development Shared governance group. She also works as a REaD assessor within QMU Graduate School. Her teaching spans bio-psycho-social determinants of health, occupational therapy theory and practice, research methods, critical thinking, and clinical decision making.

Her research initiatives include narrative studies on dementia experiences, evaluation of Family Group Conferencing for dementia care, mental health services evaluation for community-dwelling older adults, and investigations into the relationship between resilience levels and hospital readmission risks among elderly populations.