FOUR YEARS ago, Kim McDougall accepted a last-minute invitation to see a short play about carers.

It had such an impact on her, she put the wheels in motion for a similar project about families coping with dementia - with amazing results.

"It blew me away, just how powerful theatre can be at getting across the message," says Kim, who is from Hamilton.

"It made me think about how we train our staff working with families coping with dementia and whether there was a different way of doing it."

Kim knows all about the pressures of caring. As well as working as a senior officer for North Lanarkshire Council's Older Adults Services, she is also a carer - for her 77-year-old dad, who has Parkinson's.

"My sister and I look after my dad, and we both have full-time jobs so it can be difficult," she explains.

"When you get a call at 4am because he's not doing so well, and you know you are up for work in a few hours... it's hard sometimes."

Kim spoke to the original play's creators, Daisychain Associates, a theatre company with more than a decade of experience producing theatre and workshops aimed at helping families deal with difficult issues.

The result was A Quiet Riot, the powerful story of the McKenzie family trying to come to terms with - and find the right way to deal with - their mum Isabel's dementia diagnosis.

Originally intended to be used for staff training, it made such an impact, it was soon in demand all over the region.

And after a successful run of performances, it has now been made into a film.

The project is part of the Reshaping Care for Older People (RCOP) programme which aims to help growing numbers of older people to continue to live full, positive and independent lives in the community.

The RCOP partnership combines the expertise of North and South Lanark-shire Councils, NHS Lanarkshire and other agencies.

A Quiet Riot will be shown at GMAC, 103 Trongate, today at 2pm as part of Luminate. Admission is free.