Research areas

Charlotte Simony is Coordinating Research Leader at the Department of Regional Health Research (IRS), University of Southern Denmark (SDU). Based at Central and West Zealand Hospital, she leads a multidisciplinary research community dedicated to advancing clinically relevant solutions for people living with chronic illness. In 2022, she established a research house that co-locates hospital researchers and general practice researchers, deliberately creating a shared everyday research environment in which ideas grow through proximity, daily dialogue, and collaboration across specialities and sectors. This ecosystem enables transparent processes, capacity-building, and a culture of openness - connecting SDU with partners at the University of Copenhagen and international colleagues, including adjunct professors from the USA, Germany, and Australia.

At the heart of Charlotte’s work lies a clear, humanistic conviction: illness is a life event. When people become chronically ill, they meet a turning point that reshapes identity, relationships, routines, hopes, and capabilities. Charlotte’s research insists that care must recognise the lived process of learning to live well, despite illness. This means designing and evaluating interventions that support illness mastery—not only symptom management, but also a deeper integration of the condition into everyday life, in which autonomy, dignity, meaning, and participation are not afterthoughts but central outcomes of good care.

To advance this vision, Charlotte has specialised in developing complex, interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral interventions that extend beyond the traditional boundaries of hospitals and municipalities to engage civil society. A defining aspect of Charlotte’s research is her attention to health pedagogy—how knowledge, guidance, and relational support are integrated into care so that people can act, decide, and adapt more effectively. Health pedagogy is not simply patient education; it is the art of offering meaningful, contextualised knowledge that empowers individuals and families to navigate their lives. Charlotte’s studies and interventions often integrate pedagogical strategies that foster self-efficacy, reflection, and shared decision-making, thereby supporting not only clinical outcomes but also well-being, agency, and belonging.

Charlotte’s work is grounded in a robust methodological foundation. She is an expert in phenomenological-hermeneutic inquiry inspired by the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur and has published both empirical studies and highly cited methodological papers in this tradition. Through qualitative depth, rigorous analysis, and interpretive clarity, she explores how people and families make sense of illness - how they negotiate identity, reconstruct daily routines, and sustain hope and connection amid uncertainty. Her method is not only descriptive; it also shapes practice by revealing where care succeeds or fails to meet people's lived needs. Her methodological contributions also open new paths for examining lived experiences thoroughly and responsibly, guiding researchers and clinicians toward more nuanced, human-centred approaches.

Charlotte’s portfolio includes the family perspective. Illness does not affect people in isolation; it reverberates through family systems, altering roles, burdens, and relationships. Her work examines how families experience the everyday realities of illness - how they can be supported to maintain a good daily life, to preserve social functioning, and to sustain emotional resilience. In practice, this means designing interventions that make space for family members as partners in care, and that address the practical and emotional landscapes of caregiving and co-living with illness.

Physical activity and social participation are prioritised throughout Charlotte’s projects. She recognises that movement and community are foundational for well-being, identity, and health trajectories. Many of her interventions include pathways for graded physical activity, peer support networks, and participation in civil society initiatives—because these elements help people experience themselves not solely as patients but as citizens with capacities, aspirations, and relationships. By linking clinical pathways to community infrastructure, Charlotte’s research bridges institutional care with the lived worlds in which people recover, adapt, and thrive.

An important strand of Charlotte’s work bridges somatic and psychiatric care. Chronic illness often entails psychological challenges - anxiety, depression, grief, and existential questioning - as people confront loss, vulnerability, and change. Conversely, mental health conditions can shape how individuals manage somatic illnesses, influencing adherence, motivation, and engagement. Charlotte contributes to models and interventions that respect the whole person, integrating mental health perspectives with somatic care to address complex, overlapping needs. In these projects, teams practice relational continuity, shared decision-making, and inter-professional collaboration to ensure people are not fragmented by system boundaries.