Bexar County to open Senior Justice Assessment Center after VOCA grant award

Bexar County officials announced a VOCA grant award that will fund a county-led Senior Justice Assessment Center (SJAC) to coordinate responses to elder abuse and exploitation. The court received an update from County Public Health and the elder-abuse task force and welcomed Senator Menendez to the dais.

"We were awarded that," said Judge Veronica Vasquez, co-chair of the elder-abuse and exploitation task force, describing the grant as the culmination of a task-force recommendation. Public Health Director Dr. Andrea Guerrero told the court the grant provides the foundation for the center and will support two case managers to coordinate referrals and shared responses among core partners including Adult Protective Services (APS), the district attorneyoffice, sheriff and SAPD. Dr. Guerrero said Bexar County recorded high per-capita APS intakes and validated exploitation cases, underscoring the need for a centralized response.

Senator Menendez, who joined the presentation, said the center will help ensure that elder-exploitation cases are taken seriously and that prosecution is an available remedy when appropriate.

Officials described next steps: convene a planning committee, draft MOUs to enable privacy-compliant data sharing, deploy an IT referral portal for core partners, and begin weekly case-review meetings focused on high-risk individuals. Public Health said the model follows a successful center in Harris County and emphasized that referrals into SJAC will come from partner agencies rather than an open phone line to avoid overwhelming the new case managers.

What happens next: county staff will present MOUs and any implementation agreements for commissioners' approval, stand up the case-management function, and report back to the court on operational metrics and the center's early caseload.