A 16-bed Crisis Stabilisation Centre will be built at Elizabeth to allow people experiencing mental health distress to access support and stay for up to three nights in a homelike therapeutic environment.

The $20.9 million centre, which is being funded by the South Australian Government, will include counselling rooms, a family lounge and communal social areas, and offer both walk-in and booked services.

Work on the centre, which will offer access to lived experience peer workers as well as a team of psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, doctors, nurses and cultural workers, is set to begin in late 2024.

The facility will be co-located with a new Medicare Mental Health Centre, which opened in mid-June and provides seven days a week, free, walk-in mental health support.

Run by Sonder and co-funded by the Federal and State governments, the service will operate from an interim location until the permanent site next to the Lyell McEwin Hospital - and eventually the Crisis Stabilisation Centre - is complete.

The service will provide on-the-spot support and care, at no cost, for adults with moderate-to-severe mental health needs.