VA Secretary McDonald Disputes Audit's Findings Of Deep, Systemic Issues At Agency

Robert McDonald says that progress has already been made on many of the issues cited in the $68-million independent audit and that the Department of Veterans Affairs needs a bigger budget to go further. Meanwhile, a groundbreaking program in Milwaukee, Wis., has veterans act out battle-heavy scenes in Shakespeare plays to help them process their emotions.

VA Secretary Robert McDonald disputed an audit’s conclusions that his department needs a “systemwide reworking,” saying Wednesday that he’s already fixed many of the problems and what he really needs is a bigger budget and more flexibility to move that money around. (Shastry, 10/7)

William Shakespeare's words from more than 400 years ago are proving to be healing for modern-day veterans. A group of Milwaukee-area actors started workshops in which veterans depict conflict-heavy scenes from Shakespeare's plays, aimed at helping the former service members deal with post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction and reintegration issues, and mental health problems. "One of the reasons that the Shakespeare works so well is ... it's this language that just holds big emotion," said actress and project director Nancy Smith-Watson. "It elicits it but it also holds it, the metaphor just enables a lot of emotion to be put on them." (Antlfinger, 10/8)

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