Adapting virtual psychological pain care to Francophone workers in primary care physiotherapy for low back pain

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the feasibility of multisession in-person treatment options, creating the need for accessible solutions that are low-cost, low-burden, and remove the need for face-to-face meetings. This has led to the development of single-session, virtual pain interventions that have proven to be efficient at improving mental and physical health in individuals with chronic pain. However, these evidence-based virtual treatments have yet to be adapted to Francophones in primary care, who are generally underrepresented in research and form a language minority in Canada. The purpose of this study is to adapt a virtually delivered psychological pain intervention to Francophone workers in a primary care physiotherapy for low back pain and examine its preliminary effects on disability outcomes. The French version of "Empowered Relief", a 2-hour, single-session class designed to reduce pain specific distress will be delivered to francophone workers through a web-based platform. Empowered Relief provides a complementary, low-burden treatment to physiotherapists who have called for additional support to meet the psychological needs of injured workers who are experiencing symptoms of pain. Based on the findings of this study, we will offer recommendations for adapting Empowered Relief in view of a large-scale study of the implementation of virtual psychological pain care in the context of primary care rehabilitation in Québec.