A psychoeducational intervention potentially could help caregivers cope with the demands of caregiving.

Caregivers require knowledge on resolving family conflicts and about communicating and enhancing closeness with the ill family member. Support from healthcare professionals is essential even if caregivers have support from family members and friends; nurses can make conscious efforts to show concern for caregivers as well as for patients.

Support for caregivers could be increased by organizing mutual support groups and having volunteers to befriend caregivers. Spiritual care could be enhanced by regular assessment of spiritual needs, offering open discussions and sharing on spirituality and religion, and facilitating contacts with religious groups if caregivers required.

This study addresses the dilemma of initial clinical and social acceptance of a newly fabricated silicone prosthesis in relation to its colour match to the natural skin. This was achieved by derivation of specific colour difference thresholds defining perceptible and acceptable levels of colour sensitivity. Two separate sets of 10 fair and dark shade digit prosthesis samples were each fabricated with a stepped increase in colour difference (DE) against the baseline hand prosthesis. Ninety individuals with normal colour vision scores were selected as colour assessors. The colour difference of each prosthesis in the two series was evaluated visually against the baseline by the assessors, using defined scores. The thresholds for perceptible and acceptable colour difference determined in this study were DE ¼ 0.8 and DE ¼ 1.8 for the fair series and DE ¼ 1.3 and DE ¼ 2.6 for the dark series, respectively. The acceptable threshold values differed from the perceptible threshold values by DE ¼ 1.0 for the fair-shade samples and DE ¼ 1.3 for the dark-shade samples. This study demonstrated that subjective visual assessment is positively correlated with DE values computed from colorimetric measurements for both fair and dark-shade silicone samples (p50.001). This results shows that human subjects with normal colour vision are capable of accurately assessing colour differences. These observations emphasize the importance of subjective feedback on colour by the patient, provided the latter has perfect colour-tested vision. The study also showed that human subjects were less sensitive to perceived colour differences in darker-shade than fairer-shade samples (p50.001). This finding seems relevant in a clinical setting involving a multi-ethnic patient population.

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This study looks at the effect of metamerism in colour-matching and the assessment of multi-layered silicone rubber finger prostheses. The aim was to identify the choice of illuminants for colour matching the prostheses that would give rise to the least metameric effect between the prostheses and the human skin or the best colour match. The prostheses were prepared and colour matched to a fair-skinned subject under 3 reference illuminants — TL84, D65, F and a combination of illuminants — TL84, D65 and F. The prostheses were then measured for colour using a spectrophotometer based on the CIE indices L∗ a∗, b∗ with each prosthesis assessed separately against the subject's index finger under the reference illuminants-TL84, D65 and F. The prostheses were also assessed by a panel of 50 observers and scored according to colour-match. Colour differences between the skin and prosthesis were measured in the illuminant under which the prostheses were prepared and then under the other reference illuminants. A relationship was obtained between the measured mean colour difference, δE∗, and the mean visual assessment score for each prosthesis. This paper points out the concerns related to the optical phenomenon of metamerism with the colour pigments used. This can affect the colour match of the prosthesis as perceived by the patient. The findings seem to suggest that this metameric colour difference can be minimised if the prosthesis is matched under a combination of lights, which were found to give the best-perceived match.

This study provided insight into caregivers' perceptions of various components of a psychoeducational intervention. It also gave us a better understanding of how future psychoeducational interventions and support for caregivers of persons with advanced cancer could be provided.