Brighter Living Qi Gong Impact Report: Health and Wellbeing Outcomes for Older Adults in Surrey
When you are making the case for gentle movement within social prescribing, it helps to have more than theory. You need local, real-world evidence that shows what actually changes for people in your community.
The Brighter Living Qi Gong Impact Report does exactly that. It captures what happened when older adults in New Malden, Chessington and Kingston took part in regular Ki Gong and armchair yoga, led by the same instructor who now runs Qi Gong at Bright Beings Academy.
This article gives you a clear, plain-English summary of the project, the outcomes, and how you can use this report in your PCN, Trust, council or charity planning. It also links to the full PDF so you can dive into the details whenever you need them.
If you want the broader context for how Qi Gong fits into social prescribing, you can also read:
Qi Gong and Social Prescribing in the UK: A Complete Guide for Link Workers
Social Prescribing Explained: How Gentle Movement and Qi Gong Support NHS Personalised Care
What was the Brighter Living Qi Gong project?
Brighter Living was a charity initiative delivering Ki Gong and armchair yoga to older adults in community settings across the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames.
Key points from the report:
Sessions took place in New Malden, Chessington and Kingston community venues.
Around 100 older adults attended classes across three locations.
Classes were gentle, inclusive and chair-friendly, focused on movement, breath and relaxation.
The project ran over an extended period, allowing habits, relationships and outcomes to build.
The classes were led by Peter Paul Parker, now founder of Bright Beings Academy and lead for:
In other words, when you refer into these current classes, you are building on the same style of work that Brighter Living evaluated.
You can read the full write-up here:
How were outcomes measured?
The project used simple, accessible evaluation tools, which you can easily adapt in your own PCN or community organisation.
The report describes:
A brief questionnaire given to participants (28 completed), asking about changes in quality of life, flexibility, mood and everyday activities.
Open comments where people described, in their own words, what had changed.
Staff and volunteer observations from the groups, noting improvements in confidence, mobility and engagement.
This combination gives you both numbers and stories – ideal for funding bids and internal reporting.
If you’re designing your own monitoring, you can mirror this approach and link back to:
Headline outcomes: what changed for older adults?
1. Overall quality of life
Most participants who completed questionnaires reported an improvement in their overall quality of life after attending regular sessions.
In practice, this often meant:
Feeling more positive about the week ahead
Having something to look forward to
Feeling more motivated to get out of the house
For social prescribing and personalised care, this is key: you are not just ticking “exercise done”, you are helping people feel life is worth engaging with again.
You can see how this connects with the wider social prescribing picture in:
2. Flexibility, movement and everyday tasks
One of the clearest findings was around flexibility and ease of movement.
44% of respondents reported better flexibility and easier movement after attending classes.
People described being more confident getting up from chairs, climbing stairs and walking outdoors.
This matches what the wider research shows about Qi Gong and gentle movement for pain and mobility, as summarised in:
The Science Behind Qi Gong for Social Prescribing: Pain, Breath and Mood
Qi Gong and Autoimmune Conditions: Inflammation Evidence 2020–2025
For an older adult who has been slowly giving up activities, this shift can be huge: it means more independent living, more confidence and less fear of falling.
3. Pain, stiffness and fatigue
Many participants started the project with joint pain, stiffness and low energy.
The report notes that people often described:
Less day-to-day pain
Reduced stiffness, especially in the mornings
Feeling more energised after sessions, rather than drained
While this was not a large clinical trial, these experiences line up with evidence on Qi Gong for fibromyalgia, chronic pain and fatigue-related conditions, covered in:
For social prescribing, this matters because reduced pain and fatigue often lead to more engagement with other parts of a personalised care plan.
4. Mood, confidence and emotional wellbeing
The emotional impact comes through strongly in participants’ comments. People frequently mentioned:
Feeling happier and calmer after sessions
Looking forward to the class as a weekly highlight
Gaining confidence in what their body could still do
These comments echo the broader research on Qi Gong and mental health, summarised in:
From a social prescribing viewpoint, you are seeing the power of a bottom-up, body-first approach: when the nervous system calms, mood and self-belief often follow.
5. Social connection and loneliness
The report also highlights how important the group element was. People valued:
Seeing familiar faces each week
Friendly conversation before and after class
Feeling “part of something” rather than alone at home
This aligns directly with NHS goals on tackling loneliness and isolation.
If you want to explore this angle more deeply, you can also read:
How this report supports your business cases and bids
If you are a PCN lead, commissioner, Trust manager or charity coordinator, the Brighter Living report gives you:
Local, recognisable geography – New Malden, Chessington and Kingston, not an abstract setting.
Concrete numbers – attendance figures and proportions reporting improvements.
Human stories – participant comments about pain, mood, confidence and connection.
A practice delivered by the same instructor who now runs:
You can combine this local report with national and international evidence from:
The Science Behind Qi Gong for Social Prescribing: Pain, Breath and Mood
Qi Gong and Cardiovascular Health: Blood Pressure, HRV and Heart Health
Qi Gong and Autoimmune Conditions: Inflammation Evidence 2020–2025
to create a strong, layered case for commissioning Qi Gong as part of your social prescribing and healthy ageing strategies.
For partnership structures and contracting ideas, you may also want to explore:
How Bright Beings Academy continues the Brighter Living legacy
The spirit of the Brighter Living project lives on in current Bright Beings Academy classes:
New Malden Qi Gong Mondays – a gentle, often chair-friendly class ideal for over-50s and gentle movers in KT3, described in more detail at Social Prescribing in New Malden: Qi Gong for Over-50s and Gentle Chair-Based Exercise.
Qi Gong Live Classes at the Hook Centre, Chessington – an early-evening class focused on balance, strength and stress relief, mapped out in Social Prescribing in Chessington and Hook: Community Qi Gong for Healthy Ageing.
Live Online Qi Gong Classes – UK-wide Zoom classes that extend the same gentle, evidence-aligned approach to housebound, rural or anxious clients, explored in Online Qi Gong for Social Prescribing: A UK-Wide Option for Housebound and Rural Patients.
If you need a quick overview of all the pieces in this cluster, you can use:
FAQs: Using the Brighter Living report in your work
1. Can we quote this report in our funding applications?
Yes. You can reference the Brighter Living Qi Gong Impact Report as an example of local, community-based Qi Gong improving quality of life, flexibility and mood for older adults in Surrey. Whenever possible, link directly to:
and pair it with national evidence from:
2. How can we adapt the evaluation approach for our own projects?
You can:
Use a short baseline and follow-up questionnaire (e.g. 6–10 questions) on pain, movement, mood, sleep and connection.
Add 2–3 open questions such as “What has changed for you since starting the class?”
Collect feedback after 6–12 weeks, not just at taster sessions.
This approach works well alongside the practical guidance in:
3. Does this report prove that Qi Gong works for everyone?
No single report can do that. The Brighter Living evaluation is small but meaningful. It shows patterns of improvement in mobility, quality of life and mood for many participants, but:
It is not a large randomised controlled trial.
People chose to attend and may be more motivated than average.
That’s why it is best used alongside broader research and your own local data, rather than as the only evidence.
4. How does this link to NHS personalised care goals?
The report illustrates several personalised care outcomes in action:
People feel more in control of their health through regular, gentle self-care.
Community classes reduce loneliness and isolation.
Participants report changes in pain, movement and mood that matter directly to their everyday lives.
You can position Qi Gong as a low-cost, low-risk, high-relational option that supports multiple domains of wellbeing at once.
For a fuller explanation of the policy context, see:
Next steps
If you are a GP, social prescribing link worker, PCN lead, commissioner or community organiser and you would like to build on the Brighter Living legacy, you can:
Use the full report to support your cases and bids:
Brighter Living Qi Gong Impact Report 2019–2020 (PDF)Start referring into current classes that continue the same gentle, evidence-aligned approach:
Integrate Qi Gong into your wider pathways using the guidance in:
Used thoughtfully, this one local report can become a powerful cornerstone in making gentle, community-based movement a normal, trusted part of health and wellbeing in Surrey – and beyond.
I look forward to connecting with you in my next post.
Until then, be well and keep shining.
Peter. :)
