Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Clin Soc Work J DOI 10.1007/s10615-017-0616-7 ORIGINAL PAPER Developing a Problem-Solving Treatment for Gulf War Illness: Cognitive Rehabilitation of Veterans with Complex Post- Deployment Health Concerns Lauren M. Greenberg 1  · David R. Litke 1,2  · Kathleen Ray 1,8  · Joseph F. Rath 3  · Wilfred R. Pigeon 4,5  · Drew A. Helmer 1,6  · Nicole Anastasides 1  · Lisa M. McAndrew 1,7   © Springer Science+Business Media New York (Outside the USA) 2017 improve the health function for those with GWI. The goals of this article are to provide social workers with informa- tion about GWI, and describe how we modiied an evi- dence-based treatment, problem-solving therapy, for veter- ans with GWI. This tailoring of an existing treatment may serve as a model for adapting evidence-based treatments for veterans and civilians with multiple chronic symptoms and other complex health concerns. Furthermore, the detailed description provided may facilitate dissemination of prob- lem-solving therapy among social workers and trainees. Keywords Gulf War Illness · Veterans · Problem- solving therapy · Post-deployment health · Cognitive rehabilitation · Problem solving Social Workers and Post-Deployment Health Social workers serve an important role in the rehabili- tation and reintegration of veterans post-deployment. There are currently 12,000 social workers within Veterans Afairs (U.S. Department of Veterans Afairs 2016) and an unknown number of social workers who care for veterans in non-Veterans Afairs settings. With increased empha- sis on access to care (e.g., Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014), veterans are seeking social work services within the community. In Veterans Afairs and community settings, social workers connect veterans to services and facilitate veterans’ reintegration into their communities and daily lives. To best serve our veterans, it is essential for social workers to understand the context of veterans’ presenting problems, particularly regarding post- deployment health. A tailored approach to the delivery of evidence-based treatments, such as the one illustrated Abstract Social workers play an essential role in facilitat- ing veterans’ reintegration into their communities and daily lives. Many veterans, particularly those who have been deployed, experience comorbid physical, psychological, and neurocognitive problems that signiicantly impact their health function in multiple domains. Veterans deployed to Operation Desert Shield/Operation Desert Storm have reported a wide range of persistent, diverse, medically unexplained symptoms that have come to be known as Gulf War Illness (GWI). These symptoms make it diicult for veterans to participate in daily activities, thereby impact- ing health function. There are few efective treatments to The contents of this publication do not represent the views of the U.S. Department of Veterans Afairs or the United States Government. * Lauren M. Greenberg Lauren.Greenberg@va.gov 1 War Related Illness and Injury Study Center, Veterans Afairs New Jersey Health Care System, East Orange, NJ, USA 2 Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA 3 Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, USA 4 Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA 5 Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention, Canandaigua VA Medical Center, Canandaigua, NY, USA 6 Department of Medicine, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA 7 Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, University at Albany, Albany, NY, USA 8 School of Social Science and Human Services, Ramapo College, Mahwah, NJ, USA