Supporting people to have a say and be heard is one of the five key principles of care practice in the K101 course. They link to the national professional standards 'Health and Social Care'. The principle states that you need to demonstrate that you support and develop relationships with people so that they can communicate and express opinions and preferences about their health and general needs without any fear of being ridiculed, rejected or punished. I will look at two cases: one of Jordan Morgan (not his real name) who was removed from his birth family and placed with foster families and the impact of this on his identity. Also considering the importance of working on his life story in creating Jordan's identity, correcting the anecdotal stories he has. I will also discuss why it is important for foster carers to support Jordan in having a say. These foster carers are Bill, Jordan's foster carer and Suzanne McGladdery and Afshan Ahmad who work for Foster Care Associates. The second case concerns the people “in a total institution”, who lived in Lennox Castle, and who had no say. What effect did not being listened to have on them and their carers? Examples given by Margaret Scally who was a resident there and Colin Sproul who was a nurse. Jordan's case was that he was removed from his birth family at a young age and this meant he had no real or accurate information about them, which prevented him from having a true sense of his identity. As he has moved through several relationships with primary caregivers, he may have difficulty sustaining and feeling like he has a secure base. (Unit 5, pages 26-27). Using Bowlby's "attachment theory", this can cause limited opportunities to form secure and reliable attachments. This is crucial in living...... middle of paper......tten records where you would have no actual knowledge of what life was like there. With oral history you see another perspective on life within the entire institution from both staff like Colin and residents like Margaret. This gives people a voice leading to an improvement in the care they receive, by supporting relationships with individuals and taking their opinions and preferences into account, they can receive a much better holistic care service. Works Cited Open University (2011) K101An Introduction to Health and Social Care, [DVD] Unit 5, "Who Cares?"Milton Keynes, The Open UniversityOpen University (2010) K101,Resource 6: Why do life stories work?Milton Keynes , The Open UniversityOpen University (2011) K101An introduction to health and social care, Block 2 “Working with life experience”Milton Keynes, The Open University