Last month the Department of Veterans Affairs announced an outside committee to help the V.A. improve customer service. Last year’s scandal brought to light serious issues within the VA Medical System, when it was discovered that veterans faced long wait times for medical care.
In Las Cruces, a group of veterans are expressing their concerns with the VA Medical System through a theatre performance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y29I3aF47U
It’s no secret that many veterans in the U.S. face challenges, but on a recent evening, the challenge for a small group of veterans living in Las Cruces is putting the final touches on a theatre performance they are producing that they say offers a view of some of the issues that veterans may face in the VA medical system.
Veteran John Hawk is one of the performers in this improv theatre performance. He plays the part of a veteran seeking medical care from the VA and ends up facing a long wait time, misdiagnosis, and overmedication.
“It’s not scripted, we do have a basic idea of what we are going to talk about and we just run it. We find that when you have scripted things, that people spend to much of their times remembering their lines that it doesn’t come off naturally,” says Hawk.
Ernest Ramey, a veteran in the play says that the improv performance offers some humor to make it easier for folks to remember the serious issues that veterans may be facing in the U.S.
“If we were to hold a boring dry meeting, and come and expose this mean truth it would be boring, but a play and making fun of it, it will get to their subconscious easier,” says Ramey.
The Veteran’s Theater performance titled, “Dead While Waiting For My VA Appointment,” will be held April 30th, at 5:30 p.m. at the NMSU Center for Performing Arts. The group is raising funds for the performance online at http://www.gofundme.com/mol1wc.