​WATERVILLE — Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell saw Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki’s resignation Friday as a positive first step, but warned that the VA’s issues go deeper than one resignation.

“I personally think highly of General Shinseki, but I think the resignation was the right thing to do,” Mitchell said Friday in Waterville, where he was the keynote speaker at a Boys & Girls Club event. “You need someone else to come in to undertake the reforms and changes that I think are necessary to make sure veterans receive the care they need. But we have to be clear about it, it involves more than changing one piece of it. It has to be a change in attitude and be better resourced.”

Mitchell, who served in the army, said that the advancements made in the medical field has made it possible for more combat-wounded veterans to survive and continue their lives.

“You have many injured people who deserve a higher level of support,” he said.

— Jesse Scardina, staff writer


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