In a ceremony held in Washington, D.C., two employees of the Hawaiʻi Department of Health (DOH) were honored with the 2025 Emerging Maternal & Child Health Professional Award. The Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP) selected Renzy Baloran and Eden Sun for their outstanding contributions to maternal and child health. The award acknowledges professionals under 45 or with less than 10 years of experience who have significantly promoted and protected the health of women, children, and families.
"Both Renzy and Eden are fairly recent graduates of the master of public health program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and we are proud to have homegrown talent at the DOH who are passionate about public health and improving the lives of local families," stated Matthew Shim, the program director and chief of the Family Health Services Division at the Pediatric Mental Health Care Access Program (PMHCA).
Baloran and Sun manage the PMHCA grant, a $2.2 million, five-year fund awarded in 2021 to the DOH. This grant aims to integrate behavioral health into pediatric primary care by providing teleconsultation, training, technical assistance, and care coordination. This integration targets children and youth up to 21 years old with behavioral health conditions.
In August, PMHCA collaborated with Queen’s Health Systems and the Hawai‘i Community Foundation’s Promising Minds initiative to introduce the Mental Health Pediatric Access Line (MPAL) in Maui County. MPAL is the state's first dedicated warmline designed to enhance pediatric mental health services by facilitating connections between primary care providers and mental health specialists. The program offers free, same-day support to pediatric primary care providers across Maui, Lāna‘i, and Moloka‘i.
Estimates from the University of Hawaiʻi reveal a significant shortage of healthcare professionals, particularly psychiatrists. There is a 47.5% shortage in the child/adolescent psychiatry field, with a demand for 68.9 full-time equivalent (FTE) psychiatrists against a supply of only 36.2 FTEs.
"This award is truly a reflection of the collective effort of our partnerships between government, community, and philanthropic organizations to address the mental health needs of every child across the state, no matter where they live," Baloran remarked.
Baloran and Sun's efforts through PMHCA involve three main initiatives: training pediatric providers on behavioral health, establishing a statewide warmline for provider consultations, and facilitating coordinated referrals and intake services.
"As it is early in our public health careers, we are grateful and excited for what lies ahead as we move forward with our work for PMHCA," expressed Sun. "We are truly honored to receive this award and continue the work with our colleagues and partners to support the mental health needs of our keiki and families in Hawaiʻi."
For further information on the PMHCA program, visit health.hawaii.gov/pmhca.