We investigate the viability of using data mining technologies to identify college students’ mental health issues in light of the rising number of these issues. To address the limitations of the traditional Apriori algorithm in data mining of mental health problems, an improved Apriori algorithm is proposed using the classification rule mining method. The relationship between various factors and the mental health problems of college students is better explored by this algorithm. Ultimately, the mental health care pathway that was developed during the exploration was used to conduct a comparative trial between those who received mental health services and those who did not. The experimental group’s mean score in the hyperactive concentration inability dimension was 3.25 after getting mental health care for three weeks, which was 22.6% higher than the control group’s mean score. The aspects of emotional symptoms, pro-social conduct, and total difficulty score also showed significant variations (p<0.05). The mean scores of the experimental group in the pro-social behavior and emotional symptoms dimension in the course of the study and the pre-experiment were 2.17 and 0.57, accordingly, which both demonstrated highly significant differences (p<0.01) in the between-group comparison of the differences in scores at different evaluation times with the control group.