Danny Pettry, M.Ed., LPC, NCC, CTRS-BHS presented a webiar titled “An Overview of Mental Health Disorders and the DSM-5,” through Rec Therapy Today® on Wed. Sept. 25, 2019.
This was our first session that allowed for over 100 attendees. Previously, we had a limited gotowebinar subscription that only allowed for 100 attendees per session.
Below are some of the analytics and reviews for transparency reasons.
- Registrants: 192
- Avg. Interest Rating: 91
- Total Avg. Attentiveness: 89.14
Learning objectives:
By the end of this one hour presentation, you’ll be able to:
- 1.Define mental health (and mental illness)
- 2.Identify the source for diagnostics in mental health
- 3.Identify mental and behavioral health problems in different settings where recreation therapists work
Were the learning objectives met:
- Yes – objectives were met: 97.44%
- No attempt: 2.56%
- No: 0%
How could the webinar have been improved?
Here is the word cloud:

Here are the written comments:
- Good session
- no suggestions
- Thanks Danny!”
- No improvements
- “no suggestions,
- N/a no complaints
- None at this time
- Thought it was good
- Excellent as always
- I enjoyed the webinar
- I lived it! Great info.
- Adults in Mental Health.
- I enjoy all the webinars!
- “Webinar was on the DSM V.
- Nice overview of diagnosis.
- I don’t have any suggestions
- This was one of your best webinars
- I love the variety in your webinars
- “More than one section on the topic
- No improvements needed. Excellent webinar
- I think everything was presented very well
- Don’t really have any suggestions. Sorry!
- Mental health presentation was quick but a good overview
- Can’t think of anything. It was great and the interaction
- This was very informative and presented in an interesting way
- Helpful information on intervention for people w/Schizophrenia.
- I am looking forward to attending more webinars on Mental Health.
- Would like to attend sessions on specific group program ideas for
- Perhaps further a longer webinar so we could hear more explanations
- I enjoyed the webinar and do not have recommendations at this time.
- More detail. I feel like these are too easy and I would like more detail
- I feel like Danny did a great job with motivation and kept the lesson interesting.
- I REALLY enjoyed your webinars, Thank you so much for taking your time to offer these.
- I watched one on a review of the DSM-5 and it was great it covered a good intro for an hour
- I think it would be interesting to have a case study, or different intervention discussions.
- I thought the webinar was great and wished it was longer so Danny could go into more details.
- The webinar on the DSM 5 was very helpful. More time to go into different diagnoses would be great.
- For example, part 1, part 2 of the PowerPoint. Have more than one PowerPoint to see more mental diagnostic”
- The webinar on The Overview on Mental Health was very informative. I don’t think anything could be improved
- I don’t think there needs to be any improvements to the webinar on Mental Health Disorders as it met the objectives.
- I took the webinar on overview of mental health, already received certification but wasnt able to complete the survey
- Great job, could always do part two how to provide activities to these clientele or what are some things to avoid with certain clientele
- To learn everything about the diagnosis of the individuals that I work with so I can be a better therapist in return the individuals recovery will be more successful.
- I would like a follow up webinar that dives deeper into mental health and how it can come into play throughout all areas of therapeutic recreation with various populations
- I know this webinar was specific to diagnostic information, but next I would like to know about specific activities that might be beneficial to the various diagnoses we discussed.
- Webinar was on the DSM V, Mental Health and am unable to think of any feedback. It could have been longer but for a free webinar it was a great way to introduce the subject matter. More in depth webinars regarding the topic could be longer and you should be compensated for them.
- For the webinar on overview of mental health being an hour I think it was well put together and gave pertinent information. If the webinar were just a bit longer than an hour I think it would have been interesting to just get a couple of the major points of diagnosis. For example, what are qualifying factors for gambling disorder. But loved the webinar as is! Good overview!
What did you like, enjoy, or learn from the webinar?
Here is the word cloud:

Here are the written comments:
- Great job
- good recap
- No not really
- very informative
- Yes great refresher
- “Great review of dsm 5
- Yes yes I learned a lot
- “good review on disorders
- “See previous screen comments.
- Kept interest and in formative
- The sexual content was new to me. “
- Thanks again for the presentation.”
- free webinars are the best webinars
- It was related to my field of work.
- Learned about new diagnosis in the dsm
- I learned hoarding is part of the DSM 5
- did not know hoarders were included now
- Yes I like listening to others comments
- I learned that gambling is in the DSM-V now
- Down to earth and responsive to participants
- I enjoyed learning about new Dx in the DSM-5
- The differences in the dsm iv and dsm 5
- Motivates me to dig deeper into the diagnosis”
- Focusing on mental health needs to increase globally
- all sort of various diagnosis and inspired to learn more
- The DSM5 . I went to school and learned about the DSM4TR
- There are some interestingly new disorders listed in dsm5
- It was very informative. Thank you for providing this topic
- Yes, I learned that Hoarding and gambling is a disorder.
- I really love the new organization & update of dx in the dsm5
- I was able to learn about more diagnoses. Thanks for the information.
- Yes majority of the topics went in more depth than what I learned in school
- I liked the focus on Mental Health and sharing info that isn’t widely known.
- I just started a job in the mental health field and this was very informative. L
- I’ve received an advanced “interesting insight” on some evolutionary terminology.
- “I loved being reminded to say diagnoses as a person with ….. and not their actual diagnosis.
- Interesting information, as I don’t have much much experience as I would like with mental health.
- Yes about other illness that were in the DSM 5 and learned new tidbits of info on illness presented
- Just an easy to follow webinar that was on a topic that we all need reeducation on from time to time.
- I enjoyed going through the different types and hearing all of the different populations we all work with
- Learned a variety of diagnosis and their meanings. Enjoy that Danny invokes his listenings by asking ?.
- I enjoyed that Danny was still interactive with viewers and I learned about the updates made to the DSM-5.
- I enjoyed hearing the changes from the last DSM. There were several diagnoses that I wasn’t aware were in the DSM.
- “I enjoyed the questions and answers because it let us take the information and dig deeper. I liked the breakdown of the diagnoses.
- It was a great overview. I work in PM & R and recently have been getting mental health pts as well. This webinar was very informative.
- that I can relate to him since i work with kids with trauma as well, and learning about the various mental health disorders is relevant for my career
- I didn’t know anything really about the sex offender actual diagnosis, didn’t know that was considered a diagnosis and not just something bad a person did.”
- Nice overview and recap. I was in mental health years ago and just got back into the field. (was in physical rehab for 11 years). So, it was a good review for me!
- I thought the webinar was a good overview of Mental Health Disorders and it motivated me to want to study the DSM to further educate myself on the new disorders listed.
- I enjoyed the class. I learned how there are different populations in different settings. There was great information about the mental health and the role recreational therapist have
- I work in mental health and found this webinar very useful. One thing that made me think was that using guided imagery with people with schizophrenia might not always be the best activity. I tend to do a relaxation group once a week.
- I was happy to be refreshed on all diagnoses across mental health. When you think of mental health, it seems most times we think of anxiety and depression so it was nice to recall that there are so many diagnoses that fit that category.
- I found it interesting that 37% of recreational therapist work within the mental health field. Also, I enjoyed seeing how much the DSM 5 has changed since the DSM IV and how it has evolved, especially with the different diagnosis there are now.
- As I work in mental health I enjoyed the insights into working with different mental health diagnosis and feel a renewed motivation for improving the programs that I offer and in continuing to learn more about mental health in general. It’s easy to get burned out and learning new things gives motivation.
- I really enjoyed the introduction to the DSM-5. I worked in psych for years before moving to community and as I was switching is when the new DSM came out so I felt I did not know that one as well. I didn’t realize gambling disorders were added or that they broadened spectrum of autism, releasing aspergers.
- I found the content interesting as my sister in law suffers a lot with mental health being diagnosed with Manic Depression and Multiple Personality Disorder. I have seen how recreation therapy has been helping her keep a more stable life and look forward to learning more about how I can help her by learning more strategies that are mental health based.
- It was a great way to introduce the material. Thank you for giving us an hour of your time. I was familiar with majority of information provided but it was good to have a refresher on it and I learned of a new sexual behavior and the DSM axis. The course has inspired me to read my own copy of the manual which I recently got but have not made the time for it.
I was wondering if you ever thought of changing the page layout of your blog?
Its very well written; I love what youve got to say.
But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better.
Youve got an awful lot of text for only having one or 2 images.
Maybe you could space it out better?